There are more
by rrmp
Summary: The sequel to Trapped, you don't really HAVE to read the first one,you will pretty much get it. When Klaus said "there are more" what did he mean? Rose is going to figure it out, and she is going to need all of the help she can get.
1. Chapter 1

So here it is!

This is the sequel to trapped, it is a couple of months since Rose has began working at St. Vlads, Rose and Eddie are Lissa's guardian, Dimitri is Christian's guardian, Dimitri, Rose, Mia, Christian, and Lissa are all teachers, and Eddie is just a regular guardian. Dimitri and Rose's wedding has already happened, and she kept her last name as to not get confusing. This is about what Klaus meant when he said "There are more"

Chapter 1… Right in the middle of things

"Okay, I need everyone to go out and run 20 laps, guardian Belikov and I will do it with you." At this everyone groaned, and I just smiled, because that was how I was when I first started, and I looked at Dimitri and he was smiling too, probably thinking about the same memory.

I jogged outside with Dimitri beside me and we kept pace right in front of all of the students, as I'm running I see something move in the corner of my eye. "Dimitri, I saw something over there, I'm going to go check it out, keep the coms open."

After the first Strigoi attack the security has been super tight. I still haven't told anyone about what Klaus told me, but I have been on the lookout, I guess you could say that I have been paranoid. Checking out every little sound or movement, but I just didn't want anything to happen to anyone, and now it was part of my responsibility, being a guardian and all.

So I went in the forest to check it out, I had my stake ready, again, just in case. I saw the movement again and chased after it. I was quiet on my feet, but if it was a Strigoi it was useless. I get to the outside of the wards just as I see a human getting ready to take them down.

I throw my stake like a dagger and it lands right in the human's heart. I never like killing anything other than Strigoi, but I have to, I have to keep everyone safe. I run up to the human an grab my stake, then call out on the intercom "I just caught a human staking the wards, there are probably more, go on lockdown, get everyone ready, this couldn't be the only one."

I run back to get Dimitri, and make sure that Lissa is safe. As I'm running I hear Kirova on the intercom "All students go to your dorm, this is a lockdown. This is not a drill, all senior novices, secure the dorm rooms, be stationed on every floor, wait for further instructions from the guardians. All guardians get to your posts immediately."

I meet up with Dimitri as he is running to check on Christian, and me Lissa. "I've been paranoid for a reason Comrade" I said "You always have a reason Roza." And then we gave each other a look that said what would have taken hours to say in words, I love you, be safe, ect.

We got to the rooms that Lissa and Christian were in and walked right in, Eddie was being the good guardian that he was and standing right inside the door, and almost killed us when we walked through. "Jesus Ed, you could have killed us there." "Sorry Rose, can never be too careful." I shot Dimitri a look that said "see I'm not the only one" and then went back to focusing on Lissa and Christian.

"Hey Fire Crotch, I could really use your help, you up for another round." "You bet Rose, wouldn't miss it for the world." "Eddie you stay here, and don't hesitate on killing the next person that comes in this door, I'll call when it is over, or if anyone should be coming in." "You got it Rose." He said, and with that Dimitri, Christian and I ran out the doors.

"You know since you have my charge I have to stay with you now, don't you Rose?" Dimitri said "As much as I would like that I am going to have to call your bluff with a Bull Shit, you are going to go wherever you are needed to kill these sons of bithches that think they can come in here and threaten the people I care about, he is in the hands of a perfectly capable guardian, oh yeah, and be safe, I love you. Now GO!" I told Dimitri "I love you too Rose"

And he ran in one direction, and me and Christian went towards the dorm rooms. I ran in and asked the first person I saw "Has anyone sent any of you over to the elementary campus yet." "No, you are the first guardian that we have seen, whats going on." He asked "I saw a human trying to stake the wards, I killed him, so there are no Strigoi on campus yet, but there are going to be, they couldn't have brought only one human, OKAY YOU, YOU , YOU, YOU, AND ALL OF YOU, GO OVER TO THE ELEMENTARY CAMPUS NOW! STAY TOGETHER, GO!" And within minutes of me seeing and killing the human, the school was in full lockdown mode, and ready for whatever the Strigoi had to throw at us.

I ran out to the edge of the forest with Christian on my tail, and we waited, for what I knew was going to come. And I was right, within seconds I felt the nausea overcome me, and we were surrounded by at least 10 Strigoi. "You ready?" I asked him "As I'll ever be" was his reply. Which wasn't very convincing, but I had to roll with it. "NOW!" and in that instant all of the Strigoi were set on fire, it was burning them, but not killing them, so it wasn't taking that much energy out of Christian, within the first minute 5 were staked, and the other 5 were beginning to look pretty nasty with all of the burns.

The 5th one was the first one that I actually had to fight, but it wasn't hard, he went down easy, then as I was fighting another one, one grabbed hold of my hair and pulled me to the ground "Looks like you finally found out the meaning of the word teamwork, good for you" I said in my most sarcastic tone, and I jumped up, pulled out my extra stake, and staked them both at the same time, right as they came to run at me.

Now I only had 2 more to worry about. They started circling me, and I tried to keep m eyes on both of them, when one burst into flames again, and another just dropped dead… is what I thought, until I saw Dimitri behind him, with stake in hand. "You said to go where I was most needed, and that is beside my wife."

"I could have handled it, I was ready, and I had Christian. But thanks anyway hun." I said as I gave him a peck on the cheek, and then ran to where it looked like they needed me most, which of course is right in the middle of things.

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><p>Review Review Review!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Since the last chapter already had such a long authors note/summary i decided to save this stuff for this chapter.

DISCLAIMER:I own nothing, it all belongs to Richelle Meade(SP?) (but i will own a few characters later on. hint hint)

Also, i would not have been able to right this story without the wonderful ideas that my cousin JAzlyn has helped me with.

Finally, thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews that you have given me, they just make my day :) Now i promise, no more author notes for a while.

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><p>Chapter 2…What if<p>

Christian and I were kicking ass like we do every time we are in a battle together, and as I look around I see that we were not the only guardian Moroi pair, there are others that Mia and Christian have been teaching, but obviously we were the best. I couldn't help but think that if we had more Moroi in the previous battles that we would have won a lot faster.

That wasn't the case for this one though because there are so many more Strigoi than the other times. This was definitely going to last until the sun came up, all we had to do was kill as many as we could, and keep as many guardians as we could alive.

Christian and I never got a break, once we finished with one Strigoi; there was another in his place. I had good stamina, but not this good. All of the guardians looked like that. With so many Strigoi, they just kept coming, but we had the same people fighting since the very beginning.

"Christian, we have to get more of the novices involved. Only the ones that are ready like me and you were. I don't like it, but we aren't going to last much longer unless we replenish out numbers."

"I think we should too Rose, are you okay if I leave you alone for a while?" Christian asked

"Yeah I will be fine, Christian, only get the best, I can't have this on my conscience, we only have about another hour till the sun comes up." I told him, and just like that he ran to the dorms where the novices were keeping watch.

I was still staking Strigoi after Strigoi, but I could tell that I was taking more hits, and giving less, and then one by one I started to see novices coming out of the building stakes in hand. They were full of energy, and also eager to prove themselves. It did take them longer to stake the Strigoi, but they were still new, and more bodies.

A little while later Christian came back to me, and I didn't realize how much I relied on him until he came back. It seemed like it went so much faster when he was there, and I couldn't even think of fighting in a battle without him.

It seemed like I got a new burst of energy realizing that all of the Strigoi that I killed would be one less for the novices to fight off. Christian and I went back to the rhythm that we had at the beginning of the battle when we were killing them by the dozens, because that's just how many there were, hundreds, and they just kept coming.

After what seemed like an eternity, the sun started to come up and the Strigoi dispersed. I just collapsed on the ground, Christian right beside me, and for a second I wasn't thinking about anything, no one else's safety, not how many guardians died, not all of the cleanup that would have to be done, I just sat. Then the one person who always brings me out of my "me" time, Dimitri. I had to know if he was okay, I jumped up, and so did Christian, he looked at me, and it was like we had the same thought, I looked into Lissa's head real quick and she was safe and in her room.

"She's in her room" I said, and just like that I went one way and Christian went the other way. I ran over the entire campus looking for Dimitri, I found Alberta and asked if she knew where he was, and she said he was doing cleanup in the forest.

I ran to the forest as quickly as I could, and it wasn't easy to find him, considering the forest circled the entire freaking school, but at least I had a place to start. I saw other guardians cleaning and asked them if any had seen Dimitri, and eventually I got to where I could see him.

I ran up to him and jumped in his arms and kissed him. I know I say this all the time, but the kiss was filled with so much love, and I was just so happy that he was okay. Then I pulled away, got down, and slapped him. "OWWW! What was that for?" he asked completely shocked. "For not coming to find me, and just doing damage control in the woods!" I said. "Well I figured if we were both running around the campus we would never find each other." He said in a very calm voice. "Oh, okay" I said and then went back to kissing him, and I felt him chuckle.

"Oh yeah, and sorry about hitting you Comrade" I said as we were walking back to the commons area to see what had to be done. "I forgive you Roza" Dimitri said with a smile.

We went and saw Alberta, and as expected we were put on cleanup duty, the Strigoi would just turn into ash in the sun, but the dead guardians had to be properly buried, and the buildings had to be repaired. It took us hours to clean everything up, even with the help of the janitorial staff, and after all of the bodies were gone, we requited the help of the students to just go around and pick up all of the trash that was made.

It was still hours until we were done, and without all of the adrenalin going through my veins, I could have dropped down any second. But somehow I made it until it was as clean as it was going to get until later, and I went with Dimitri up into our room.

Once I was up there and in the shower I checked in with Lissa and saw that she was in the infirmary healing all of the people with deathly injuries, and Adrian was there healing all of the people with minor ones.

I felt so much better now that I knew that everything was over and that Lissa was safe. Now all I wanted to do was sleep, and sleep, and sleep. I was so exhausted that I couldn't think straight, and that was the first thing I did when I got out of the shower.

When I woke up it was in the middle of the night (vampire time.) And I wasn't tired at all anymore because my sleep schedule got messed up by the battle. Dimitri was beside me, and he was still asleep, so I just laid there and thought. I thought about everything starting months ago when I killed Klaus. He said there were more and I didn't know what he was talking about, I still don't know what he was talking about. But with how many Strigoi I saw working together tonight, I was afraid.

I didn't know what to do, how I could know what he meant, what he was thinking, if he was dead. I almost wish that I hadn't killed him, I needed answers. Then I remembered what Dimitri said, that the potion thing the alchemists use didn't work on him, and the sun didn't burn him, so they buried him with the stake in him, and they thought that was that, but what if…

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><p>Don't you just LOVE the cliffhanger ;P<p>

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	3. Chapter 3

Sorry it took so long for me to update (wow i feel like i have been saying that a lot lately) but school just started and it has been hectic. I will try my hardest to update every 3rd day like i used to but no promises, all honors in high school takes a lot of time. But don't worry i would totally skip homework to write, so you will never have to wait too long.  
>Ooooooo i'm so excited for you guys to get to the first, well second battle scene, it is so good, if i do say so myself! anyway enough of me talking, on with the story.<p>

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><p>Chapter 3…Thought of everything<p>

I didn't know what to do, how I could know what he meant, what he was thinking if he was dead. I almost wish that I hadn't killed him, I needed answers. Then I remembered what Dimitri said, that the potion thing the alchemists use didn't work on him, and the sun didn't burn him, so they buried him with the stake in him, and they thought that was that, but what if… he was somehow still alive. What if all I had to do was find him and take the stake out, and he would come back to-his undead—life.

I had to try something, I had to know what he was talking about, and I had to know from him. I slipped out of bed careful not to wake Dimitri, and I wrote him a note _Don't worry, I had something to take care of, be back soon. I love you. ~R_ and left it on my pillow. I got dressed in my kick ass gear, got all of the things that I kept from the Sam's battle (the swords and daggers and knives, and throwy things) and then threw it all into a duffle bag.

Everyone should be sleeping now, and now that I'm a guardian it should be even easier to sneak out. The first thing I had to do though was go to the infirmary. I had to get blood bags, because if this really did work Klaus would be hungry, very hungry, and I was not going to let him drink from me.

I got to the infirmary and all of the patients that were still there from the battle were sleeping, so I snuck in and went to the back where they kept all of the extra supplies. It took me a while, but I finally found the cooler that they kept all of the blood bags in, I grabbed three and put them in the duffle bag along with all of my weapons. Then I went to the janitor's closet and grabbed a shovel. That didn't fit in the duffle bag, but I could carry it, so it was all good.

I snuck back out of the infirmary and went to head out to the woods. I was going to walk out and around the campus, and follow the road, and a mile down there was a car hidden in the woods compliments of Abe **(A/N: Her mom introduced her to Abe so that he could be at her wedding, and she also knows Sydney, they met when Lissa and her were on the run)** in case I was ever in a situation like this.

I was walking through the woods when I heard something, it was to quiet to be an animal, but we were outside the wards, and it was getting dark so it could be a Strigoi. I took my sword out from my duffle bag and hid behind a tree.

I didn't hear the sound for a while, and the next time I did they were right beside me. I jumped out from behind the tree and flung out my sword at neck height and froze when I saw my sword pointing at the neck of Dimitri. Needless to say he froze too, and I just stared at him in shock, finally I got out the words "What are you doing here?" "I could ask you the same thing" he said "Yeah, but I asked you first, and I left a note, and you were sleeping, so what are you doing here Dimitri?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm following you, because obviously you are going to get yourself in some type of trouble. And can you please get that sword away from my neck?" I was still so shocked to see him that I didn't even realize that my sword was still there. I removed it right away and said "You shouldn't be here Dimitri, it's dangerous and illegal, and you aren't going to approve, I know I can trust you, but if this goes wrong, I don't want you to get in trouble for one of my stupid ideas."

He took me in his arms and said "Roza, your ideas are never stupid, reckless? Yes, spontaneous? Yes, but that is who I fell in love with and married, I am going through this with you, we will make it work out, and neither of us will lose our jobs."

"Okay, but I'm not telling you what we are going to do, you will figure it out soon enough; just tell me, because this is your last chance to turn back Comrade."

"I'm with you till the end Roza" he said "Okay" and then I continued walking, I put my sword back, but took out my stake, because like I said before, we were outside the wards, and anything could happen.

A mile later we were right where Abe said he had a car, and he was right, there it was, and it wasn't just a car, it was a maserati. I couldn't believe he would buy a car like this just to put in the woods, as a just in case you need it, I wonder what kind of car he would get me if I asked for a _nice_ car.

I couldn't help but smile at the things he does for me. I got in and Dimitri got in on the passenger side, I could tell he wanted to drive, but even I didn't know where we were going, but I did have a favor to call in. I took out my phone and dialed "Hey Syd, it's Rose" I said "Hey Rose, I heard about the attack, are you alright?" Sydney asked. "Yeah, I'm fine, hey you remember that time in Portland, when I saved your ass, and you said that you owed me, well I need to call in that favor, and If you do this then I will owe _you _one." I told her "Uhoh, Rose this doesn't sound good" She said. "I need you to give me the address where Klaus is buried." I told her in a really fast, really quiet voice, trying and failing for Dimitri not to hear. He looked speechless, but like after a couple of minutes he would really let me have it. I had to savor the few moments of calmness before the storm. "Yeah you were right Rose, you ARE going to owe me, like big time, I'm not even going to ask why you need it, but hold on, let me look it up, I have it somewhere arou—here it is, 1675 Grary Dr. North Garfield, Montana" "Thanks Sydney, like I said, I owe you." And then I hung up.

I looked at Dimitri and said before he could say anything "I gave you an out, and you said you would follow it through, I told you it was stupid, and you figured out it was dangerous, so don't you dare say anything." He just nodded his head and I put in the address to the GPS that was in the car. It said we would be there in 5 hours, look like we had some time to plan what we were going to do.

"So what part of you thought this was a good plan?" Dimitri asked "Well I guess it's good that I get all of this out of the way now, and then we can plan. So it all started the night that I killed Klaus. Right after I staked him, and right before he died he said 'there are more' I didn't know what he was talking about, and I couldn't ask him because then he, well died. Then you said that the serum stuff the alchemists use didn't work on him, that the sunlight didn't burn him, and so they left the stake in and buried him. That's why I've been so on edge lately, I didn't know what 'there are more' meant. And so really early this morning I got up, because my sleep schedule was all messed up from the battle, and I just lay in bed and thought about everything that happened and decided I needed to hear it from Klaus. I figured there are three ways this could go down, one he doesn't wake up at all and he is just dead, second, he wakes up and over powers me, third he wakes up and cooperates, and tells me everything I need to know." I told Dimitri, and that was about the whole story "Or fourth, he wakes up, realizes he hasn't had blood in eight months, drains you dry, and then realizes he needs you, feeds you his blood and you become a Strigoi." Dimitri added.

"Comrade, I already thought of that, check my duffle bag." I told him "But be careful not to cut yourself" I added as an afterthought. He turned around and got my duffle bag, and when he saw the blood bag he smiled "You just thought of all of this, this morning?" he asked "Yeah, it was really spur of the moment, because I knew that if I thought about it I would talk myself out of it."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4…How the hell did you do that

We spent the rest of the ride going over different plans, and we stopped once at a gas station for gas, food, and to buy an extra shovel so that we could both be digging. By the time we got to the address that Sydney gave us it was midnight. It was just an empty field with one tiny bright orange flag in the middle where I guessed was where Klaus was buried. We got out the shovels and I brought over my duffle bag and we started digging. The hole was huge, and it didn't look like it would take that much time, even with our speed and strength it took us an hour and a half before we even felt something hard, then another hour to actually get off the rest of the dirt, and out of the ten foot deep hole.

We sat him up against a tree and I started to put on all of my gear. I said this before and I will say it again, I looked pretty bad ass in that shit. After I was done I turned to Dimitri and looked into his eyes. "Dimitri, you know I love you right? And I would never intentionally put you in danger this was all your doing, your choice to come with me." I asked him "Yes I know that it was my idea to come with you, and yes I know that you love me, just as much as I love you." He told me. "Wow, that's a lot of love." I said jokingly, and then he took me in his arms and wee kissed. It felt like a good bye kiss, or maybe a just in case kiss, I can't tell the difference, all I knew is that I didn't want this to be the last time I kissed him.

I straddled Klaus' legs and brought out one of the silver knives with one hand and held it to his throat, while with the other hand I pulled out the dagger. After it was out I didn't move it but an inch away from his heart, if he even moved his neck was getting slit, and he was getting a stake back in his heart. After a couple of minutes I saw the wound in his chest start to heal "Dimitri its working! Get me the blood bags"

Dimitri did as I said, and seconds later there was a big intake of breath, then he tried to lunge toward my neck, but he hit the dagger and screamed out in pain "Dimitri now, give it to him!" Dimitri reached down and handed Klaus the blood bag, he drank it within seconds and Dimitri grabbed the second one. That one he took a little longer on, and he wasn't as white, he was still pale, but not like a new cotton sheet white, and his eyes started to get a bright red, and he was finally able to talk.

"Rose?" he asked in a very raspy voice.  
>"Yeah it's me, the one who killed you, and won't hesitate to do it again, you will get the third blood bag when you answer all of my questions."<br>"I knew you would figure it out, how long has it been?"  
>"Seven months, about, now first question, 'there are more,' there are more what?" I asked<br>"There are more originals, I think it would be easier if I told you the story and then you asked me any more questions."  
>"Okay" I said, and I relaxed a little inside, seeing that he seemed willing to tell me what I needed to know, but I didn't relax at all with the weapons at his throat or heart.<br>"We were a family, there were seven of us, I was the youngest, Vladimir was the oldest—"  
>"No, Vladimir was a Moroi, he was shadow kissed, or is it not the same Vladimir!" I said shocked and confused.<br>"Yes it is the same person, when you are talking about the originals you have to throw everything you know about vampires and Strigoi out the window. My father was a Moroi the first Moroi, and when he had his first six children, they were with another Moroi, the first female Moroi, kind of like Adam and Eve, since they were the first their children were more powerful than anything, they had all of the qualities of Strigoi, but could use magic, like regular Moroi, but they could use all five elements. But me, my mother had an affair with a human, so I was the first Dhampir, or basically the first common Strigoi, just more powerful. Really the only difference is that I can't use magic. Further down the line as us, and our children, and great children, and so on started mating with humans we grew weaker. We got to the point where we could no longer reproduce, we could only be made, and those are the common Strigoi that you know of today. So when I said 'there are more' I meant there are more originals, there are my six brothers and sisters, and the reason I went through with all of the tests was because I needed the best Dhampirs on my side, I needed to turn them Strigoi so that I could kill my brothers and sisters, well not kill, as you can see we cannot be killed, but they needed to be put in a suspended state. Now you can ask questions"  
>"Why would you want to kill your brothers and sisters?" I asked<br>"Not kill, preserve, I guess you could call it, they are reeking too much havoc, killing humans, killing Dhampirs, they are upsetting the balance, I need to teach them a lesson, that just because I'm the youngest, and can't use magic, doesn't mean that I am defenseless."  
>"Holly ground?"<br>"If an original walks on it he/she can control the wards let whoever he/she wants in"  
>"Isaiah?"<br>"He was my first son"  
>"I'm sorry, I didn't know" I don't know why I was apologizing to a Strigoi for killing another Strigoi, but Klaus seemed different.<br>"Don't bother, he was also upsetting the balance."  
>"Wait, if you were born, why didn't you stay a baby?"<br>"We were able to choose the age that we wanted to stop growing at, we can turn it on and off, I chose to stop at 26, but I can change my mind whenever I want, and be older or younger."  
>By the time I was done with all of the questions I could think of for now, the sun was starting to come up. "We better get you inside somewhere, the sun is starting to come up."<br>"Sunlight doesn't affect me." He said  
>"Well that's convenient, that means that if everything you are telling me is true—"which it is"—then the only way to tell if you are a Strigoi is by your pale skin and red eyes."<br>"Actually no, because I can do this" and just like that his eyes were dark brown, and he had nice tanned skin.  
>"Fuck, so how the hell are we supposed to tell, and how the hell did you do that?"<br>"Well as for how, it was kind of like the magic used on the bracelets your friends can make that hides your identity, only we can change the look, and don't need a tacky piece of silver jewelry, as for how you will be able to tell, you won't, I will, it doesn't work on other originals, and that is why you can't kill me, because unless you want to wait around for them to come to you, which Rose I know you don't, you need me to spot them out.


	5. Chapter 5

I just felt like getting on with the story so i gave you guys an extra chapter this time, and from now on this is closer to the length that they will be, between 2 and 3 thousand words instead of 1000 :)

Chapter 5… Leaving

I brought Klaus back to the car, and he sat in the back seat, and I let Dimitri drive, because I really wanted to sleep. I knew I couldn't' because I still had a lot of questions, but I definitely wasn't fit to drive.

"So, if we are going to do this, what are we going to need?" I asked Klaus "You might want to get a paper and pen." But without hesitation he continued, so I figured he was just exaggerating. "First you will need a Moroi that for every element" He said "Well I have water, fire, and spirit, I guess we will have to get some of Christians students." I looked at Dimitri for confirmation, and he just shrugged his shoulders. "Next, we will need money, which can get us the rest of the stuff, tents, cars, plane tickets, food, ect." "Well I know two endless bank accounts that are more than happy to help out. But couldn't you just go to a bank and compel the teller to give you money, or even the flight attendants and stuff?" I asked "I could, but I didn't think you would approve of that." "She doesn't" Dimitri answered for me, giving me a stern look.

After that, we didn't really talk the rest of the way, and eventually, despite my nerves, I fell asleep. Next thing I know I was being shaken awake by Dimitri because we had got to the spot where we had to park the car. We got out and it was about 4 o'clock in the morning (Vampire time.)

"Okay, so I need you to do the brown eyes, tanned skin thing, and Dimitri, you have to let him borrow some of your guardian uniforms. There have been a lot of temporary guardians coming in after the attack, it will be the least suspicious." I told them both, they agreed and we snuck off to mine and Dimitri's room.

When we got there I went straight to the bathroom and started to get ready for bed. When I got out I told Dimitri get out the blow up mattress and set it up for Klaus. "Tomorrow we will start planning, I want to be out of here in 48 hours, we can plan more on the road, we don't have to, and we won't attack right away, but I don't want to be worried about anyone looking over our shoulders. Klaus, you are going to have to do some serious compulsion, do you think that you can do that?" I asked "of course I can whatever you need me to do for this to work" He said in a very proper tone.

After that we all went to bed, and I snuggled up to Dimitri, and was asleep in seconds, despite my little nap on the way over here.

When I woke up I was relieved to see that Klaus was still here. He wasn't in the bed though; he was in the kitchen making breakfast. I slipped out of Dimitri's arms and went over to see if he needed help.

"You must hate people now in days." I told him "And why would you say that?" he asked "Because you are so proper, and chivalrous, and now, everyone is rude, stuck up snobs, who only care about themselves." I said in a matter of fact tone "Well you aren't" he said, it was supposed to be an observation, but it kind of sounded like he was trying to flirt. "Well I guess, but most people are, I wish I could have seen what it was like back then." I said longingly. "I think you would have loved it, but you aren't tame enough, you wouldn't have been able to let the men do everything for you, you are too independent." "I guess you're right, how do you know me so well?" I asked "Because I watched you, studied you, I had to find out if you were the right person to do what needed to be done, not many people could make the decisions that you have made, and live with them."

Right then Dimitri walked in and also started helping with breakfast, after a few minutes everything was done, and we ate. "Okay, today we have to ask everyone to help us, if they say no, don't push it, and it is going to be hard breaking the news to them about you" I said nodding my head towards Klaus "So I think I am going to do it all at once, I will tell everyone to meet in Lissa's room; and when we first walk in Klaus, you have to totally change your look, then when I give you a sigh, you can change into tanned skin brown eyes Klaus, it will take them a while to get used to you being like this."

After breakfast I texted Lissa and told her to get Mia, Eddie, Christian, and Adrian in her room in an hour, and that we would be there a little after, I had something very important to tell them.

After an hour, Dimitri, Klaus, and I all headed over to Lissa's room. I was getting a lot more relaxed with him after last night; he didn't leave, or try to kill me.

We got to Lissa's room and I looked at Klaus, he looked like a totally different person, it was scary, how he could do that, and I even knew what he looked like, and I still couldn't see through his disguise.

I knocked and then just walked in, everyone was sitting down, and they looked at me when I came in. "Well I guess I owe you guys an explanation for why I called you here, but what I am about to show you will scare you, but you just have to trust me, I know what I'm doing, and after I show you, if ANY of you want out I will totally understand. I don't like putting any of you in danger, especially you Lissa, so you know that I wouldn't be doing this unless I had to. Are you ready?" Eddie looked like he was getting really excited; I mean we were always the ones to get in trouble together. They all shook their head yes and I motioned to Klaus to change. He did, and everyone just looked at him shocked, no one knew what to say. "He, he, he isn't S-s-s-strigoi?" Lissa stuttered. "He is, this is a disguise, because I thought you guys would react worse to him if he had red eyes and pale skin." I said.

Then all of the sudden he lit on fire "You son of a bitch, you tried to kill my girlfriend!"  
>"CHRISTIAN STOP! LET ME EXPLAIN!" I said lunging toward him, and held down his hands, breaking his concentration. "He tried to kill Lissa, how can you be okay with him?" Christian asked<br>"He was trying to get to me, just let him explain!" I yelled  
>Christian relaxed, and I took that as my cue that I could get off of him.<p>

Then Klaus went in and told them everything that he told me, they all listened, and I watched all of them to make sure that no one was going to try something. After he finished Eddie asked "So you need all of us to go and kill originals?" he asked. "Well yeah, kind of, I also need an air user, and an earth user. But like I said, if any of you want to go, now would be the time to do it, I would totally understand, I would actually be kind of relieved, I could find replacements, but I just know how powerful all of you are, and we are going to need that if we are even going to come close to succeeding."

Everyone was silent for a while, and Eddie was the first one to speak up "Rose, I don't know how you get yourself into all of these crazy situations, but I will always be by your side, you know that." "Thanks Ed" I told him with as much sincerity as I could. "You're my sister; I would never let you do this alone." Lissa told me, and I just gave her a look, that said all of the thanks it needed to. "A chance to kick some Strigoi ass, wouldn't miss it for the world." So now I had Christian, Lissa, and Eddie on board. "Adrian, you are going to be money, so you need to stay here, and keep tabs on all of the teachers, make sure none of them suspect anything, Klaus is going to compel them, but it might wear off, or something might change, and I need you to be here." He looked relieved when I said that, but he also looked kind of jealous that he didn't get to go. "Well if Adrian isn't going, I definitely am" Mia said jokingly. "Good so everyone is on board. Christian, I need you to get your best earth user, and air user, they have to be seniors, I couldn't handle anything younger." I told him "Okay Rose." He said and then he got up and walked out of the room.

"So how are we going to do this? I mean, it's not like they are all going to be in the US." Eddie asked "Well first off, we are going to get plane tickets, Klaus knows where they like to be, and that is where we will start, so most of the time we will be tracking them, and preparing for fights. We are going to be in tents, we can't use hotels, unless we all shared on room, which isn't going to happen. We need to pack light, but it is winter, and it will be really cold in some of the places that we go, so make sure to pack lots of jackets. Everyone gets one suitcase, and it will be one tent for two people.

We leave in less than 48 hours, so get it done fast, and tie up any loose ends that need to be dealt with. Then I walked out of the room, and back to my room to pack my own things. I also had to call Abe.

"Hey Rose, what do you need?" Abe asked when he answered the phone. "What makes you think I need something, can't a daughter call her father just to tell her she loves him?" I asked fake hurt "Yes most daughters can, but not you, what do you need?" "I need two more cars, parked where the other one is, and I need them to be four seaters, and I need them as soon as possible, if that isn't too much trouble." I asked him "Of course it isn't. Is it okay if they are rented?" he asked "Yeah, that should be fine, also, if I could have an account with a couple thousand dollars, that would really help." I said in a pleading voice "That should be fine" He said hesitantly "I'm not even going to ask what you are doing, I'm just going to tell you to be safe, and I love you" He told me "Thanks, I love you too dad"

Now that that was taken care of I could work on packing. I just left my duffle bag packed with all of the weapons, and grabbed another suitcase for clothes. I packed all of my winter jackets, tennis shoes, boots, I had to get me and Dimitri to sit on my suitcase before it even thought about closing.

"Dimitri, I'm going over to talk to Lissa, make sure she is okay, and see if Christian has the other Moroi yet." It felt weird including Moroi in a dangerous mission, but even in the past few months, times have changed.

I got to Lissa's room and walked right in; as soon as I did she ran and gave me a hug. "I'm so sorry, that must have been so hard for you to do" She told me, and I was shocked, I came here to comfort her, and she was comforting me "What do you mean?" I asked her "I mean bringing him back, that must have been the hardest decision you have ever made, I mean he was the reason Dimitri almost died, the reason you almost died, the reason we were stuck in sams for weeks, I'm so sorry you had to do that" She told me. "Lissa, I'm fine now, really, I came here to make sure you were okay, okay with seeing him, I mean he almost killed you, and I wanted to make sure you were okay with going through with this." I told her. "Of course I'm okay, I'm doing this for you, there aren't many times when you let me do things like this, I want to be able to protect you" She told me, and we both just smiled.

After that Christian came in with two Moroi following him. "Tell them Rose, they won't believe me, they think they are in trouble." Christian told me, obviously tired of trying to explain things to them. "Okay, Christian go stand by the door, I'm not sure how much I can trust these two, Lissa be ready to compel them to forget all of this if they decide they don't want to do it, I can't have them going and ruining the whole thing." Finally I turned toward the two students "Sit." I said, and pointed to the couch. They did as they were told, and so I continued "You two are here because he" I said pointing to Christian "says that you are the best earth and air user, if you agree to do what I am about to tell you, it will be very dangerous, and you could die, we will do everything we can to stop that from happening, but everyone is going to look out for themselves first, and other people second, so you have to do the same. We are going to go after what are called originals, they are the seven original vampires, they are as strong and as fast as Strigoi, but have all of the powers that Moroi have, that is why we need one Moroi for every element. I would not be putting your lives in danger for some stupid little experiment, what we are doing is real, and dangerous, and will save the lives of thousands of innocent humans and vampires alike. The originals are the ones that organize everything, all of the attacks on the schools, which has been them, so they are not to be under estimated. You will be gone for weeks, maybe months, but don't worry no one will notice. I feel like I have to tell you this so you know everything you are getting yourselves in to. We know all of this from an original, his name is Klaus and he is the youngest, he also doesn't have any powers, he is going to compel everyone to forget that we ever existed, and after we come back, if we come back, things will go back to normal and it will be like you were never gone. If you don't want to do this, speak up now, and Lissa will compel you to forget that we ever had this conversation, if you don't speak up now, and you get in our way later, there will be consequences."

I looked at them signaling that I was done, and they both looked at each other and then said at the same time "We're in" "Okay, we are leaving tomorrow night, in the middle of the night, you have to be packed, and at this door by midnight we are leaving at one. You guys can go and get packed, and make a list of all of the people that would come looking for you, parents, friends, aunts, uncles, everyone, we cannot have some relative messing this up for everyone, do you understand?" They both nodded their heads and then left to go get packed.

"Well that went better than I expected" I told Lissa "I think you had them as soon as you said that they are the best" She said with a chuckle. "Okay, get some rest, tomorrow is going to be a long day." And then I left to go also go to sleep."

The next day went by in a blur and before I knew it, it was already 11 o'clock at night (vampire time) I double checked that I had everything and headed off to Lissa's room with Klaus and Dimitri. When I got there everyone was already there, and I was surprised, but it was a good sign, it meant everyone was willing to do this, and that they would all listen to my orders. "HEY! How come you get two suitcases Rose" Lissa wined, I just opened up the duffle bag, and when she saw all of the weapons she said "Ohhhh, I get it now" and I just smiled. "Okay since everyone is here, looks like we can get on the road early. Rob, Wendy, I need your lists of people that know you." They handed them to me and I gave them to Klaus, he looked at the list and closed his eyes, and after about a minute he opened them and said "It's done they won't remember anything, who else do you need me to compel?" he asked "Everyone at the school, all of our students, the fellow guardians, everyone" I told him "Okay" he said This time it took him a little longer, and after he was done he looked very tired "It's done"

"Okay everyone, we have to head out to the cars, and then we will be on our way." They all grabbed their bags and followed me out of the building. When I started to head to the forest Rob spoke up "Umm, the parking lot is that way, I thought you were a guardian, aren't you supposed to be good at directions?" he asked in a very cocky tone. I could tell right then that this guy was a cocky asshole who would really get on my nerves "We aren't going to the parking lot dumbass, we are going to the woods" I told him "ROSE! Don't talk to a student like that" Lissa yelled at me "Yeah, whatever" I grumbled, but just kept walking. Once we got out the wards I told everyone to be on guard, and Eddie, Dmitri, and I all took out our stakes.

No sooner we got to the cars, and there were two more, just like Abe promised, and in the Mazarati was an envelope with a note and a credit card. "Klaus you are with me, in this one. Dimitri, you take Rob and Wendy in that one, and Eddie, you take Lissa Christian, and Mia. Dimitri, keep an eye on them, and everyone just follow me. Here and take these" I said throwing Eddie and Dimitri a walky talky, so we could talk to each other, if we needed to stop for some reason."

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	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6… Finally Asleep

Once we were all in cars I asked Klaus where we had to go first. "Well we have to head to South America, we are going to go after the weakest first, her name is Rosalie, and she likes the forest."  
>"What the fuck, why does Rosawhatever have to be the weakest one." Klaus just chuckled "So what element is she strongest at?" I asked "She is strongest at wind, so whatever you do, don't have Wendy go up against her, because she will lose in a heartbeat, we have to play to her weaknesses, she likes the rain forest because the trees give off so much oxygen, but the forest is the Prime spot for and Earth user, so this might be Rob who does the grunt work." I just nodded and asked "Where do we have to stop first?"<p>

"First we have to stop at a hospital; I will run in there and get blood bags for everyone, because I really need one right now after all of that compulsion." I asked for the nearest hospital in the GPS and then told Eddie and Dimitri over the Walky talky that that was where we were going to go, on our way to South America.

We stopped at the hospital and Klaus was the only one to get out. He was back within a minute with an entire bag filled with blood bags. "Man that was fast, is that how fast all of you originals can move?" I asked once he got back in the car. "Yeah, so you are going to have to work on your speed."

"The next stop we have to make is a Sams." I laughed and then looked at him "Oh, you were serious?" I said "Yeah, I mean I guess we could stop at a Wal-Mart or somewhere like that, but we need tents, and food and those are the only two places I know that sell both of those things." He told me "Oh, okay" I typed sams into the GPS and it said we were only about 30 minutes away.

We went to Sams and got all of the things we needed and started our 2 day drive to South America.

Klaus and I switched off Driving, and so did everyone in all of the other cars, we weren't going to stop; we were just going to drive straight through. At our first stop we put food in all of the cars, so the only reason we had to stop was to go to the bathroom. Like I said it took about 2 days to get there, and when we got to border control Klaus just compelled them to let us through, and forget that they ever saw us.

"You said that you could control who comes in and out of wards if you were in them right?" I asked Klaus  
>"Yes, I can do that."<br>"Could you keep out another Original?" I asked him  
>"I should be able to, why?"<br>"Well I was just thinking that we should put wards up around our tents, and then you can make sure that no one gets in them, because you guys can walk in the sun, and I don't want anyone sneaking in while we are sleeping"  
>"Yeah, I can do that"<p>

Once we were close to where the rain forest was we found the nearest police station and I went in with Lissa. When we walked in, all of the guys looked at us, and it made me feel good that I still had this affect on them. "Where is the chief?" I asked, one of the guys pointed to an office and I thanked him for his help. We walked over and I knocked on the door and I heard a faint "Come in." We walked in and he barely looked up from his desk but then he did a double take and just stared at us. "What can I help you ladies with?" I nudged Lissa telling her that it was her turn and she compelled him "I need a map of all of the bodies found in and around the rain forest, murders, animal attack, everything."

He got the dazed look on his face, and shuffled through a file cabinet and pulled out an ancient map with different colored dots all over. "Ask him for more blank maps." I told Lissa "And I need more blank maps" there was more shuffling, but eventually he came up with them. "Now forget that we asked for the maps, we wanted to report a lost dog." He nodded his head and we left "A lost dog, really?" I asked Lissa once we got out. "Hey it was the best I could do on the spot; I'm not as good at lying as you are."

When we finally got to where it looked like the rain forest began we looked at a map to see which road would take us the deepest in. Obviously there wasn't a road going through the entire forest, but the closer we got to the middle the better.

We took that road for another couple of hours and then that dead ended, so we parked our cars off to the side of the road, and got all of our bags. Klaus was carrying the most, all of the tents, and some of the food. Then Eddie, Dimitri, and I split up the rest of the food, and then everyone just carried their own bags, and we started walking.

It was getting light so I thought we should start to look for a good place to camp out. "Hey everyone start looking for a clearing, it's getting light outside" I yelled. About an hour later we found a big clearing, and we started to set up the camp. "Rob, stop sitting around looking pretty, and get your hands dirty." I told him and immediately regretted it, he got a big smirk on his face "You think I'm pretty, and you like it dirty, those are two very good things to know about you Rose" he said. "Just get off your ass and help, go get fire wood." I told him but he just stood there "Didn't you hear me, I said go get firewood, what are you doing?" I asked him, mad. "Practicing" he said and then closed his eyes. Seconds later there was a huge pile of firewood right in the middle of the circle of tents. Rob looked a little worn out but other than that he looked fine. "Earth user" I muttered to myself

"Christian, can you get the fore going?" I asked him "Sure thing Rosie" he told me, and I smacked him on the back of his head "Don't call me Rosie." He just laughed. Then he started to move his hands around what looked like an invisible ball, but then it turned into fire and he threw it at the pile of wood. "When did you learn to do that?" I asked in shock. "Just now" he told me "Bull shit, your good, but not that good."

"Maybe I am just that good." He said with a smirk, as he walked away. "Mia, can you go get some us some water?" "Sure thing Rose, but I might be a little while because I am going to practice some, okay?" She asked "Yeah, that's fine." I told her.

After Mia left and all of the tents were set up, I sat by the fire and opened all of the maps. I looked at the key, and the different colored dots represented Animal Attacks, Murders, starvation, drowning, and unusual. Then I took the blank maps and on the top of them I wrote Animal Attacks on the next one I wrote Murders, and the last one I wrote Accidents. Then I copied the dots and transferred them on to the correct map. Then all I had to do was look for a pattern.

While I was doing this, everyone else was practicing, Eddie and Dimitri were sparring, and Christian was instructing all of the Moroi, and Klaus came and walked over to help me.

We studied the maps for hours, and finally found what looked like could be a trail, we paid most attention to the animal attacks, and murders, because Klaus said that was how they liked to cover their tracks. When we finally finished I looked around and everyone looked pretty worn out from their practicing.

"Hey guys, have you seen Mia come back yet?" I asked. Everyone looked around noticing for the first time that Mia wasn't there, and I took that as a no. It was the first day and I had already lost someone, what the hell, I wasn't supposed to lose anyone at all, period.

"We have to start looking for her, she can't be gone she can't be" Eddie was ranting "Ed calm down, we will find her, I'm sure she is fine." I told him. "Rose, don't tell me to calm down, she isn't fine, she's captured, or dead, or worse." And then he froze in his spot "Eddie you can't think like th—" and I was cut off by him screaming "BUT I LOVE HER! I love her Rose, I really do, and now she's gone."

Now it was my turn to freeze, I knew he liked her, but I didn't know he liked her that much. "Eddie, we will find her, don't worry." And just as I said that she came walking back with a dog in her arms. "Hey guys, sorry I took so long, I was with the mermaids, and can you believe they had never seen a water bender before?"

We all just stared at her in shock, accept Klaus, he looked to be having a stare down with Klaus, but I had to ignore that for now. "Mia, did you say… mermaids?" I asked "Yeah, you know a fin instead of legs, they live in the water, mermaids." She said like it was completely natural. "Mia, mermaids don't exist." I told her, a little afraid. "They said you would say that, and to tell you how many humans think that there is no such thing as vampires." I thought about that and looked to Klaus who was still starring down the dog.

"Are there such things as Mermaids?" I asked him, and he finally looked away from the dog and answered me. "Yeah" I was so flabbergasted that I didn't know what to do, I just stood there shaking my head.

I guess it was finally time to pay attention to the dog; it was a collie, with black hair, that had a red tint when the sun hit it. "Mia, what's with the dog?" I asked "Oh yeah, I forgot I was holding her, I found her in the woods, isn't she cute, I think we should call her Niki." Mia said, all in one breath. "Mia, we can't carry a dog with us the whole way, she will just end up getting hurt" I told her "Oh, Rose come on, you know you like her, and she has to stay." Mia pleaded "She can sleep with me" Rob offered, and I was shocked but reluctantly I agreed.

"We have to talk about sleeping arrangements anyway, I will be in a tent with Dimitri, Lissa and Christian will share one, Eddie and Mia" I said giving Eddie a look that said you owe me "Rob and Niki in another, and that leaves Klaus and Wendy, I guess, unless Wendy, you aren't comfortable, we will switch it around." I told her "No, no, its fine really, I don't want to be any trouble." She said as she looked at Klaus, he didn't notice but any girl could tell she totally found him hot, and now that I look at him and forget the fact that he tried to kill me, I guess he was quite attractive.

"Okay now before we go to bed I need all of the Moroi to go and put wards up around the campsite."

After that was settled we all retreated to our tents, and Christian turned out the fire so there was just a slight glow. I lay in bed for about an hour before I gave up on trying to sleep, I had been nauseous around Klaus, but ever since Mia came back, I had become even more nauseous. So I got out of bed as quietly as I could, but somehow still ended up waking Dimitri "Where are you going?" he asked groggily "Can't sleep, being around Klaus makes me nauseous, I need to get some air." I told him, and then walked out of the tent.

It was the middle of the human afternoon, and the sun felt so good on my skin, it also made it significantly warmer, I didn't even need my jacket. Granted we were in South America, and didn't really need a jacket to begin with, but still.

I took in a deep breath, and could just smell how clean the air was. Seconds later I heard another tent zipper, and assumed it was Dimitri, but instead it was Klaus who spoke. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" he asked "Yeah, it is, what are you doing up?" I asked him "Originals don't sleep, we can't, we just close our eyes and relax, it keeps us constantly alert, I heard someone come out, and wanted to see who it was, why are you up?" he asked. I didn't want to tell him the exact reason why because then I thought that he might feel bad, but he tried to kill me, I know he has changed but still.

"You make me nauseous. I mean not just you, all Strigoi do, and I was getting used to it, but then when Mia came back from the mermaids it got worse. So I couldn't sleep, and came out for some air." Right as I said that I heard voices coming in from Rob's tent, he was talking to the dog. "Looks like we aren't the only ones awake" I whispered to Klaus.

"You look a lot like my dog used to, but she died, so did my parents, my brother killed my dad and turned Strigoi, and then when he was killing my mother, he saw me hiding in the corner, he asked if I wanted to 'join the fun' and when I didn't move he snapped her neck, and then left. The dog was the only thing I had left from my childhood, and she died about a year ago, and that's why I'm so worried out here, I keep thinking that I am going to see my brother, but that is also the reason I wanted to do this, I hoped I would see my brother, and then I could kill him." There was a long pause and then he said "wow, it feels good to get that off of my chest, I have never told anyone that."

I looked at Klaus and he looked really sad "I can't believe anyone would do that to their family, they were so young, and they had yet to live their lives." He whispered to me, I just nodded my head "Hey neither of us ever got to spar today, do you want to go somewhere and practice?" I asked him. "Yeah, it is going to be needed, and then maybe you will be able to get some sleep."

We walked far enough away that they couldn't hear us, but if there was a scream, from either side, it would definitely be heard.

We were fighting and were evenly matched, and about half way through I had to stop, he pinned me down and was on top of me "Why did you stop?" he asked "Why are you going easy on me, where is that speed that I saw you use when you got in and out of a hospital in 30 seconds, the other originals aren't going to go easy on me, you will be doing me a favor by going hard on me." I told him, and I flipped us over and then got up.

We started to circle each other and the he made the first move, and it was safe to say now, he was kicking my ass, I got hit. A lot. But I could still hold my own; he hadn't "killed" me yet, but he was about to, so I stepped up my game, and it was like the Sam's fight all over again, accept we didn't have any weapons. Finally about after an hour I stuck my finger right where his heart was and said "Dead" in a completely out of breath voice, and we both collapsed on the ground.

"I think it doesn't matter how nauseous you are, you will be able to fall asleep" he said "I agree" and we got up and walked back to the camp. When I got in the tent I changed and then climbed back into bed next to Dimitri. I was only going to be able to sleep for about 6 hours, but I was a high school student, I was used to those kinds of hours.

The same as getting out, when I got in I woke up Dimitri, "Are you feeling better now?" he asked, voice full of concern "much" I told him "good" he said and started to kiss me. The kiss started out slow, but then got heated, he took off the shirt that I just put on, and I hated to do this but I broke away "Dimitri, I can't, I was just sparring with Klaus for the past hour, and I am way to tired" he nodded, and just pulled me closer to him, and rested his chin on the top of my head. Within minutes I was asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7… We should be fine

When everyone was up we ate breakfast, and then it was time to go on our way. Between Klaus and me we had a pretty good feeling of where we had to go. Klaus could feel when we were getting closer, and my nausea just kept getting worse, so we knew that we were going in the right direction, but of course someone had to question us, and of course that someone was Rob. "Are you sure you know where you are going, it looks like we are going in circles."

"Well of course it would to someone like you, but when you actually know what you're doing, it would look like you are going in the right direction." I told him. I felt bad for him after I heard what he told Niki, but he was still just a pain in the ass.

After that we just made small talk until my nausea got really bad, I looked at Klaus, and he looked totally on edge too. I dropped all of my things and got into my duffle bag and took out all of the weapons and started passing them out.

"Wendy, whatever you do, do not go head to head against her, she will beat you in seconds, her specialty is air, but she is still good at all of the other ones. Rob, she is the worst at earth, so this is going to be all about you, you have to provide the distractions, but Dimitri, Eddie, Klaus, and I will be the ones to kill her. Christian, she is air, so use it all up around her, burn all of the oxygen from around her."

They all looked like they knew what they had to do, and they were all getting ready, I just hoped that all of that practicing they did yesterday paid off. We all just stood there, completely on edge, not knowing what to do accept wait.

Minutes later Rosalie showed up with about 20 Strigoi surrounding her, but my nausea was way too bad to be just that many, others had to be hiding in the trees. Also, Niki was going crazy, she just wouldn't stop barking.

I looked at Klaus, and he started to talk to Rosalie. "You know why I'm here."  
>"Yes I do Klaus, you are here to kill me… but that isn't going to happen, you and all of your little friends are going to be dead within the next 5 minutes"<p>

Then all of the trees started to tremble, and I thought it was her, but then I looked at Rob and he had a look of concentration and pain all over his face. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Rob. I'm not sure what he was doing but I knew it was going to be big, and it was going to be the distraction that we needed.

Then one by one all of the trees that were around us started going in to the ground. They started disappearing faster and faster, birds were flying out of the trees before they got swallowed into the earth. Slowly, all of the Strigoi that were in hiding had nowhere to hide anymore. The noise was overwhelming, the rustling of the leaves, the scurrying of the forest animals, and the screams of rage coming from Rosalie. "I'm not his friend!" Rob screamed at Rosalie, right before he collapsed to the ground from all of the energy that he used.

After all of the trees around us were gone, I could see all of the Strigoi, and I was right, there were a lot more than 20. For the first time Rosalie looked almost scared, but she quickly recovered and sent all of the Strigoi after us.

We were staking them left and right, and Christian was throwing fire balls at them. But he was more experienced then when he lit up the fire, he didn't even have to concentrate anymore, they just came out. Mia and Wendy were suffocating/drowning them which made them even easier targets for us. Rosalie just stood by and watched all of her minions being destroyed. And within the hour they were, all of them, but not without consequences, all of us were extremely tired and Rosalie hadn't done anything, so she was still full strength.

After she saw the all of the Strigoi were gone, and that none of us were, she was pissed, within seconds, everyone's air supply was cut off, and then a second later there was a circle of fire all around her, it went up at least 30 feet up, and everyone was doing exactly as I told them, Rob made a distraction, Christian was cutting off her air supply, now it was our turn.

Since I could breathe again I started to run up to her. Dimitri, Eddie and Klaus followed, and before I knew it we were through the wall of fire, and standing face to face with Rosalie. "CHRISTIAN!" I yelled, and he let down the fire, because it was doing such a good job, that we couldn't breathe either. Then he passed out from exhaustion.

Then we started to fight. It was 4 against one, but within seconds Eddie was thrown about 50 feet away, to where all of the Moroi were standing, all accept Christian, he was being healed by Lissa, who moved to Eddie, once he basically landed at her feet.

Then next one to go was Dimitri, he collapsed with a good knock to the head. That stopped me for a second, and I wanted more than anything to just run to him and make sure he was okay, but if I did, then we would all be dead. Then it was just me and Klaus. My trainings with him last night really helped, and I was kind of used to her speed, and I was beginning to become just as fast. Rosalie looked surprised when I kicked it into overdrive, and was as fast as her, but like any good fighter, her surprise vanished and pure determination was all that was left.

I guess you could kind of say that it was unfair, 2 against 1, but right now I just wanted to get to Dimitri. The thought of him lying on the ground made me fight even harder, and I did what I was starting to call my signature punch kick combination, and she stumbled. That made me smile, and I knew that I had it in the bag. I didn't slow down; I just kept coming harder and harder. Eventually she fell to the ground, and I pulled out my stake and drove it through her heart "You are a disgrace to the name" I spat right before her expression turned blank, and I ran over to Dimitri.

Lissa was already healing him, and Christian and Eddie, were already up and moving; I just laid my head on his chest and fell asleep. I couldn't care about anything more, for now we were safe, and all I wanted to do was sleep.

I could feel that I was being carried, and when I looked up it was Dimitri that was doing so, I smiled and kissed him. Obviously he kissed me back, and for one second, we were the only two people in the world until snot mouth had to go and ruin it. "Get a room!" Rob yelled, it was like i had two Christians, now i see why he liked him co much. "I think we will" I said getting down, and walking over to the tents that were now set up, but then Lissa called me back "No, wait, he was just kidding, Rose I have to talk to you." "Okay" I said smiling, and Dimitri just laughed.

I walked over to Lissa and she looked at me "Are you okay?" she asked "Yeah, I'm fine" I told her "No really, I mean it Rose, are you okay, I'm not one of those people who asks but doesn't really want to know, I want to know." She told me, and I was shocked "I know you are Lissa, and that is why I love you so much, but really I'm fine." I told her reassuringly, and she just gave me a hug, and before she let go I felt the warm and cold tingling sensation "LISSA! I said I was fine, you can't do that." I yelled at her. "Yes I can, because you are my friend, and you had a broken rib, and a twisted ankle, that is not fine"

I actually did feel a lot better after she did that, I hadn't even noticed how much pain I was in until it was gone. "Wait how did you know about that, I didn't even know about that?" I asked her "It's something new I learned, I have my own little x-ray kind of thing, and it's pretty cool actually." She told me "Now you have even more things to rub in Adrian's face" I joked. We all sat around the fire that Christian had set up, "How long was I sleeping? You guys got a lot done" I asked "Only about an hour or two" Klaus answered. "Rose, where did you learn to fight like that? You were moving as fast as they were" Eddie asked in amazement, and I hadn't really noticed it when I was fighting, but I guess to them I looked like a Strigoi. I just pointed to Klaus "Sparring with this guy" I told him. "Oh" he said, and then looked at Mia, obviously she wasn't looking back, because they just weren't that lucky.

He hadn't told Mia what he had screamed to us, they weren't really even dating, but when you were alone with either one of them, the other one was all they talked about, I had tried my hardest, putting them in the same tent, and trying to be matchmaker, but they were just being so awkward around each other.

Lissa brought out Marshmallows from our food bag, and we started to roast them by the fire. Rob couldn't resist giving one to Niki, and then everyone ended up giving her one. I went to give her one and she just turned her head away, and went over to curl up in Dimitri's lap. Then Klaus leaned over and whispered "Don't worry, she doesn't like any pretty female." I smiled "Thanks for trying to fix my ego of being turned down by a dog, but I doubt that's it." I told him. He just shrugged his shoulders and went back to roasting marshmallows.

After about an hour or so of small talk, the sun started to come up "Klaus, what are we going to do with the bodies?" I asked him "We have a family tomb in England, we are going to keep them there. And how are we going to get them there exactly?" I asked "Well eventually, one of them is in England, as for now, we will put them in the trunk, and then when we go over there we will take them with us." He told me.

After that I was kind of afraid to ask him "Where exactly is the next place we have to go." "Well if you want to go in order from weakest to strongest, we have to go to the Dead Sea." "That one was the weakest!" Mia asked in shock "Yeah, and the next one is Irvetta, it is Latin for water." Klaus answered.

"Great, the dead sea, that's not far away or _big_ or WATER! We should be fine." I said retreating inside the tent. Dimitri soon followed, and we both went to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8… Secrets

The next morning we got up, and packed all of our things, it was time to head back to the cars. The walk back took all day, and about half of the night, we took turns carrying Rosalie, and once we got to the cars, no one was in the mood to drive we were still in the rain forest, so we just decided to camp out there. We were getting into a rhythm of how to set up camp, and it was going by faster and faster each day.

In about 20 minutes the tents were set up, the fire was going, and we were cooking the food. After we ate everyone went to bed, accept me and Klaus, I wasn't tired enough yet to ignore the nausea. So we sat up and started to make a game plan. "Well obviously Mia can't go up against her, Rob used so much energy today making all of the frees disappear, I don't know how long it will take him to get back to full strength, are only options are Christian or Wendy."

"Christian, we need to use Christian, Fire is the opposite of water, so naturally since she is the best at water, her own body would fight against her to be good at fire, since they are so opposite. The other elements don't really repel as much as fire and water do." Klaus told me.

Right as Klaus finished talking Dimitri came out, sat next to me and took me in his arms. "Why don't you come to bed?" he asked "Because I can't sleep, and there's too much to do." I told him. "Then I will help you guys, a new set of eyes." "Okay" I told him.

"So we have decided that Christian is going to be the one to go up against Irvetta, since fire and water are so opposite." Dimitri just nodded his head. "Mia is also going to have to learn some new tricks, obviously they can't go head to head, but it would be a waste for her not to use any of that water" He said. "I agree, she is definitely going to be useful while we are there" Klaus said.

I could tell that they were just going to keep talking; I mean Dimitri had been a guardian for a lot longer than I had, so I just leaned back on his chest and closed my eyes. What seemed like a second later I woke up in my sleeping bag, and Dimitri wasn't beside me. My nausea wasn't as bad, so I figured that they were sparring, and I just had to go and see who was winning.

I snuck out of camp, and followed my increasing nausea to see where they were. Once I could hear them I got really quiet, because I didn't want them to know I was there, I wanted to see how hard Klaus went on him when I wasn't around, and/or see if he was going easy on me.

When I finally saw them, I could see what Eddie meant by moving as fast as they do. Everything was a blur, you couldn't see where one person began and the other ended, you couldn't even see the punches and kicks, you could only hear their impact, and the grunt that came out whenever one of them got hurt.

I was standing there for at least 40 minutes before I heard the word "Dead" come from Dimitri's lips. I started that slow clap that you always see in the movies when one of the enemies sees the good guy do something, and the both looked over, and relaxed when they saw that it was just me.

"How long have you been standing there?" Dimitri asked completely out of breath. "About 40 minutes, you two are very good, you might be able to beat me now Dimitri" I said with a smirk as I turned to walk back to camp.

Then I hear what I was hoping for, very soft footsteps. I spun on my heal, and caught Dimitri's hands mid lunge "Now I know what you mean when you said that you would have got me even if I wouldn't have done a battle cry." I said with a wink "It wasn't that, that gave me away, it was my attitude, you were bating me." I said, and then without letting go I kissed him, and kissed him hard. I could faintly hear Klaus walking away chuckling and muttering something like young love.

I just smiled against Dimitri's lips and kept kissing him, I jumped in his arms and wrapped my legs around his waist and he carried us back to our tent, not breaking the kiss the whole time.

I woke up, and Dimitri was just staring at me "Hey, what happened to 'you're starring' 'I'm gazing' 'it's creepy'?" I asked him. "Would it make you feel better if I said that you were right, it is romantic" he said giving me a kiss. "You're beautiful when you sleep, has anyone ever told you that?" "Well, no one has ever watched me sleep, so no, no one has ever told me that." I said with a smile He smiled too, and went back to kissing me.

When we finally came out of the tent everyone else was already up, and eating breakfast. "Rose, we are getting low on blood bags "Christian told me "We will get some when we are driving to the airport." I told him "Oh yeah, Rose, how are we going to get a dead body with a steak in it past airport security?" Rob asked "Well if we were going to go through airport security, we would just compel them, but we aren't, we are going to use Adrian's private jet. But I don't think we should leave today. Right now, this is the only place we are positive that is safe, I think we should stay here and practice today."

They all shook their heads agreeing, and just like that it was settled, we were going to stay here and practice. That's all we did, all day, practice. It was very boring and very tiring at the same time. Dimitri and I did our laps, and then I sparred with Dimitri, while Klaus taught Eddie the same things he taught me and Dimitri, mostly speed.

The only interesting part of the day was at the end. Dimitri and I were going for laps to finish the day, and I wanted to get really tired to be able to go to sleep, so Dimitri left at our usual number and I kept going. I wasn't just running, I was training, so I picked up the pace, and concentrated on not making any noise, it almost felt like I was floating by the time I had down a good rhythm.

But I got broken out of my own little world by the sound of voices. It was Klaus talking to some woman that I didn't know, I had to get closer and I could only barely hear what they were saying, I didn't want Klaus to hear me because I knew that if I got to close, even with how silent I was he would hear me. So I stayed where I was and didn't make a sound. I strained my ears, and heard what sounded like "You have to change in front of them, the longer you wait the angrier, and less trustworthy they are going to be of you." "I can't do it yet, they aren't ready" I heard the female voice say "They will never be fully ready, you just have to trust them, people have changed a lot, this isn't going to be like the last time we tried this, especially since you won't abandon us at the very end. RIGHT?" I heard Klaus ask "Last time you did, you got everyone killed, I would have been to, if it was possible." He sounded pissed "Last time, you guys weren't as good, these people are better, but I'm still not sure if I can trust them." She said "You have to try, for all of our sakes." Klaus said, and then he started to walk my way.

I ran as fast and as silent as I could back to camp, and was surprised at my speed, I really was becoming as fast as a Strigoi. I scurried in the tent, and then started to change into clothes that weren't soaked in sweat.

As I laid down Dimitri's arms pulled me to him subconsciously, he didn't even wake up. I kissed him on the forehead, and then closed my eyes. I was tired enough to go to sleep, but my heart was racing from the conversation I overheard Klaus and the mystery woman having. Eventually I did get to sleep, and it was welcomed with open arms.

But then me regular dreams turned into a spirit dream. "ADRIAN!" I screamed as I ran into his arms, I didn't know that I would have missed him this much. "Hey little Dhampir, happy to see me?" "Of course I am Adrian, but I'm really tired, give me a bench, and what the hell kind of scenery is this?" It was just white, everything was white you couldn't see where the ground stopped, and the sky began. He looked around for the first time and realized that here was no scenery, then it turned into a beautiful park, with lots of benches, I couldn't help it was so beautiful, it was a good break from constant rain forest. "Much better Adrian, so, why are you here" I said walking over to one of the benches. "I'm here to see where you are, if you are okay, how things are going, and if you need anything?" He asked "Wow, lots of questions, one at a time, as for where, South America, the rain forest to be more specific, if I'm okay, I'm perfect, but I always am, how things are going, good, we killed our first original 2 days ago, and finally if I need anything, yes actually I do, I need your private jet, there should be a GPS on my phone, because I'm not 100% sure where I am exactly, so just look for that and then send the jet to the nearest airport. So, how is everything there, has anyone remembered our existence yet?"I asked "Yeah, Alberta has, she's a resistant little bugger, but I got through to her." He said with a wink. "Oh please tell me you didn't, Adrian she's old, you can't manipulate her like that." I said "Eww, Rose, no, I just compelled her" he said sounding disgusted.

"Good, I would have had to kill you, hey is it possible to fall asleep in a dream?" I asked "Yeah, why?" he said "Because I'm really tired, and sleeping on the forest floor, so imagine me up a nice pillow top mattress, and some nice fluffy sheets, and… OHHH give me some really fluffy PJ's." I told Adrian, within seconds it was all here and I grabbed his hand and dragged him into bed with me.

It was harmless, and just a dream, so no harm done. We got under the covers and right before I fell asleep I said "Thanks Adrian" "no problem Rose" and then I fell asleep, in a dream.

When I woke up I was alone, on a rock hard forest floor, in a tent. I was so missing the mattress that I fell asleep on in my dream. I walked out of the tent, and as soon as I saw Klaus I remembered what I heard him talking about, and I got a real uneasy feeling. When he looked at me and saw my face he walked over. "Is everything okay Rose?"  
>"No, it's not actually."<br>"Well what is it?" he asked  
>"What was up with last night."<br>"I don't know what you're talking about Rose."  
>"Bull Shit you don't know what I'm talking about, I heard it all." I told him<br>"Okay, it's not what you think, I'm not going to hurt Wendy, we both love each other, just don't tell anyone." He told me, and I was shocked  
>"Wait, what are you talking about?" I asked him<br>"What were you talking about?" he asked me  
>"I was talking about that conversation you had with the mystery woman in the woods yesterday, not what you and Wendy… eww, I really didn't need to know that, and you're damn right you better not hurt her, or I will kill you. Again. Now tell me about the conversation I overheard."<br>"You heard that, no one was there, I was listening the whole time, that's impossible."  
>"I don't care if it's impossible Klaus, I heard it, and now you have a lot of explaining to do."<br>"I'm sorry Rose, I can't, it isn't my secret to tell, you are just going to have to wait, she will reveal herself when she is ready." I didn't want to hear any more, I just walked away shaking my head, leaving Klaus dumbfounded, that I figured out one of his secrets, and that he told me the other.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9… The first one to react

"Dimitri, can you ride with Klaus, I just want a little break from being nauseous" I lied, I couldn't even stand to be around him, I was afraid that if I was I was going to kill him if he didn't tell me what was going on, because from the sounds of it, it could get us all killed. "Sure babe, whatever you need" "Thanks Comrade, you're a life saver" I said giving him a peck on the lips.

I found the closest airport, and we were there within 2 hours. It was our shortest car ride yet. I was afraid that we were going to have a hard time finding where Adrian's plane would be, but it wasn't like any airport in the US. It was incredibly small and there were only a couple of planes, once you got on to the air strip you could easily tell which one was Adrian's. We all walked on, bringing all of our suitcases, and once we were seated I called Abe. "Hey dad, I just wanted to tell you the address, of the cars. We are getting on Adrian's plane, so we won't be able to take them with us. They are at the St. Petersburg airport in Brazil." "What the hell are you doing in Brazil! Wait no, I said I wasn't going to ask, okay Rose, I will send someone to pick them up, is that all?" "No" "What else do you need Rose." "Just wanted to tell you that I love you." "I love you too." He said, and then I hung up.

I looked to Dimitri "It's going to be a long plane ride, isn't it?" I asked him "Very long" he said "Good." I said. And I put up the armrest between us, and laid my head on his lap and fell asleep.

When I woke up I asked Dimitri, "How long till we get there?" "At least another 5 or 6 hours" he told me. "Good" I looked around the plane, and there was a lot of room, and everyone seemed to be awake. "Okay everyone, listen up! There are still a few more hours until we get there, and when we do, I'm not sure how much time, if any, we will have to practice, so work on that now. The only thing I ask is Christian, please do not blow up the plane." I told everyone "I will do my best not to Rose" He said sarcastically.

"Hey Comrade, do you mind if I spar with Klaus today?" I asked him "No problem Rose, I'll see what he has taught Eddie" "Thanks Dimitri."

I walked over to Klaus I had some anger that I had to get out, and I had to prove to him that I could beat him, and kill him again if I had too. "Let's make a bet" I told him "Rose I already know what its going to be, I told you, it's not my secret to tell." "Then tell me everything else about the conversation, the 'killed us all, and me too, accept it wasn't possible' part, and the 'they are better part' you don't have to tell me who it is, but obviously it is someone in or staying by our camp, and someone who is at least part Strigoi, and that is why I'm more nauseous. So just tell me that, because if it puts our lives in danger, I have a right to know, these people might not be your friends, but they are mine. And if you win, then you have nothing to worry about. What do you say?"

It looked like he was having an internal battle, and finally he agreed. We shook hands, and then it was open season. I had no plans to lose this fight, but it looked like Klaus had the same realization. We were both fighting harder than we ever had before, I mean, I fought harder than I did when I was fighting Rosalie. Maybe I was just getting better, I don't know, but within minutes I had Klaus on the floor, and I was on top of him.

To say I wasn't worn out would definitely be an understatement, but I wasn't like ready to pass out tired, just a little winded. I smiled for two reasons, one because I won, and another because I won so fast, it only took me minutes, and I was barely even tired. I looked at him, and he looked pissed, but I just got up, and helped him up.

"A deal is a deal, and don't worry, I won't tell anyone, I will let whoever secret it is to tell, tell. I just need to know that my team and I are not in immediate danger." I told him. When I said that he seemed to relax, and he walked me over to a seat in the back. "So you have already figured out that it is someone around here, and you have already figured out that she is part Strigoi, what you don't know is that she isn't as old as she seems, she is 529 years old, and 300 years ago—which is a pretty short time for someone like me—I tried the same thing. I went around and tried to kill all of my brothers and sisters. They thought just because humans had a shorter life span, meant that they meant less, which is totally untrue, it makes their lives that much more valuable. Anyway, we almost succeeded, we were fighting Vladimir, and we were about equal, all of us versus him, and right at the key moment, she left, and saved herself. In doing so, she tipped the balance in Vladimir's favor; he killed all of them, and made me watch, as my friends over the years died before my eyes" As he was saying this, I could see that it still pained him to think about "and then he killed me. The only reason I'm here today is because some human came up and was greedy, I was in the woods, and he saw a shiny silver steak in my heart, he just had to have it, when he pulled it out, I came back to life, I still have that stake, and it is the one that I plan on using to kill Vladimir. When she said that you were better, she meant that you guys are better than the team I had 300 years ago, and that you don't even need her. So she isn't one of the people in your camp, she is in hiding, and my secret to keep is that I can't tell you where. As an original, I am bound, and if I tell you, it would be the death of me, the real death, one where there is no coming back from."

I couldn't believe it, any of it, it was all so surreal.

After Klaus' story I walked back over to mine and Dimitri's seat, everyone else was still practicing, and thank God, Christian hadn't blown anything up yet.

I just sat in my seat and thought about everything that had happened, and thought of a plan for how we were going to attack Irvetta.

When we finally landed we all got off and brought our things. I called Adrian and told him to leave the plane there, because after we kill Irvetta we are probably going to need to get on the plane again to go to some other place in God knows where.

We got into the cars, and we put Rosalie in one of the trunks with all of the other luggage; and then we drove, we drove to the Dead Sea.

"Where the hell are we supposed to even start, the Dead Sea is huge?" Eddie asked over the walky talkies.

I looked at Klaus and he took the walky talky from me and said "Unlike Rosalie, Irvetta doesnt like to live somewhere secluded, we have to go to the biggest cities around the Dead Sea if you want to find her, and then work our way down in size. But it has to be some type of beach resort, because it can never be too far away from the water." Then he gave me back the walky talky "Any more questions?" I asked, and everyone replied no.

We kept driving, and when the sun started to come up, it was time for us to head in or the night. We all pulled into the nearest gas station. "Okay, so there are no forests nearby, so we have to stay in a hotel. That means that Christian, Mia, Wendy, and Rob, you have to draw wards around the whole hotel, it shouldn't be too hard, we will try to find a small one, but we do all have to stay in the same room, to maximize space, we will leave our things in the car, and we will ask for a lot of extra blankets."

They all agreed, and we got back in the cars and made our way to the closest hotel. We got there in about 20 minutes, and when we told the front desk clerk that we wanted their biggest room, because all of us would be sleeping in there I thought she was literally going to shit a brick. But she gave it to us anyway and I gave her a big tip.

Once the moroi were finished with the wards, they came back inside, and we all went up to the room. When we got to the room there were two king beds, a pull out couch, a folding bed in one of the closets, and lots of extra blankets.

"Okay, same sleeping arrangements as the tents, Rob, you get the folding bed because you are the only single person here." I realized too late what I said, everyone looked at Klaus and Wendy, as I tried to cover up. "I mean the only one who is alone in a tent, like one person single, not dating single."

They all looked relieved, but I could honestly say none of them felt as relieved as me, Klaus, and Wendy.

"Dimitri and I will take the couch, the rest of you can fight over the master bedroom, and who gets to sleep on the floor.

I went to the bathroom to get changed and then I went to put the sheets on the bed. While everyone was still in the living room I decided I should talk about the plan for tomorrow.

"So tomorrow we are going to get food and restock everything else, like the blood bags. Also I think we should just stay here and practice. We don't want to go up against Irvetta unprepared; because she might be at the first city that we check, and I don't think any of us are prepared, we hardly beat Rosalie, and Irvetta is more powerful."

"Christian, you are going to go up against her, Mia, you will be the distraction and Wendy, and if we have to go underwater will you be able to give us air to breath?" I asked her

"Yeah, I should be able to, I will practice tomorrow." "Okay, now everyone get some sleep" I told them, as I put the sheets on my bed, and Rob is sleeping out in the living room with us, and Niki.

The next morning when I woke up, no one else was up, and when I looked outside I realized why, it was still light outside, like really light, just after noon kind of light, but I wasn't tired at all so I decided I would go to the store, because by the time everyone else was up they would probably be closing. I left a note on the door saying where I was going just in case anyone did get up.

I got everything we needed and when I was about to get to the door I turned around and got all of everyone's luggage and decided I would do the laundry.

I got to the front desk and asked for lots of change. By the time I was done with the shopping and laundry and everything else the sun was just going down, meaning Dimitri, and probably Klaus would just be getting up. I would recruit them to help me make breakfast.

By the time breakfast was done everyone was up and happy to be in clean clothes, we ate and practiced for the _entire_ day!

Other people made lunch, and then dinner, and after that we were all sitting in the living room just chatting when Niki started barking. We all looked at her and she wouldn't stop "Shhhhh" "NO!" everyone was yelling but she wouldn't." Finally I had had enough and stood up and yelled "STOP!" She did immediately and, then the strangest thing happened, she changed.

Her back legs got longer, her front legs got thicker, her hair started disappearing accept on her head, her nose and ears started to shrink, she was getting taller, she wasn't on four legs anymore, she was on two. And no longer did she have paws, she had hands and feet.

Everyone just stared in shock-but when I looked to Klaus it was a different kind of shock—at the naked human girl in front of us with short black hair that had a red tint when the light hit it, who had perfectly tanned skin stretched over a perfectly toned and curvy body

The first one to move was Rob, and it was to give her his shirt that went down to right above her knees.


	10. Chapter 10

So for any of you that think Rose might have been a little bit OC and being too nice, this is for you :)

* * *

><p>Chapter 10… Surprise<p>

Before I addressed Niki I looked at Klaus and silently asked if this is who he was talking to. He nodded his head yes and then I decided to talk.

"So why did you leave Klaus to die?" everyone looked at me shocked, and Niki just looked at Klaus and screamed "How could you tell her, how could you not be DEAD!" Before he could answer I spoke up again

"He didn't tell me, I overheard you two talking, meaning I already know why you didn't show yourself, but why did you leave Klaus to die, it couldn't just have been because you were scared, I have thought about it more, and there is no way that you would have gone through killing 5 originals,, and coop out on the 6th one, no matter how powerful, because even just after killing one original, I would Die for any one person—besides you—in this room, so there had to be another reason, I just don't know if Klaus was too dumb, or too blind to see it."

"Maybe that's just the difference between you and me, I'm not as honorable" She said

"Well obviously not, but still you had to have another reason." As soon as I said that, I was looking between Niki and Klaus and then it hit me like a brick wall.

"Wow, how could I be so stupid?" I asked myself "He turned you, and you loved him" I said still to myself, but everyone could hear, and Niki looked really nervous, Klaus looked just as confused as everyone else, he really was blind.

"You loved Klaus, But Vladimir was the one that turned you, you didn't know that until you saw him. . You didn't know who to choose, so you just ran away, you couldn't betray either of them. That's it, isn't it?" I asked her, Klaus had a look of realization come over his face as Niki nodded.

"The two things I don't understand is why are you a dog, and why did you decide to change now?" I asked.

"I decided to change now because I finally made my decision, I'm going to kill Vladimir, and as for the dog, that is a very long story that I think you should all sit down for." She said. Everyone sat down but me "I think I'll stand."

"Okay, so I wasn't always human, I used to be just a dog, but one day Vladimir got really hungry, he was in the woods, with no people for miles. I happened to walk by and he bit me, and drained my of blood. Next thing I know I wake up in an abandoned mansion a bed as a human. I don't know if he gave me his blood as some sort of experiment but it didn't matter. I could talk, and I was extremely fast and strong, soon I figured out that not all humans were and that I was a Strigoi. Vladimir used me in ever way possible, I was a blood whore, his blood whore, and if anyone touched me, they died." She shuddered at the memory and Rob put an arm around her, she leaned into him and continued.

"The one thing about me he didn't know was that I could still turn into a dog, and when I was a dog I could walk in the sun. Vladimir though the originals were the only ones that could do that, so when I started to plan my escape I decided it was going to be during the day. He had an army of Strigoi that tended to his every whim, but as long as I left during the day he was the only one that could come after me. Long story short I turned into a dog and escaped, I enrolled in a school, we got attacked, and then I was recruited by him." She said poi9nting to Klaus. "I hated him at first, for killing my friends, but then I started to fall for him, and by the time we were attacking Vladimir, I was in love with him, once I realized who Vladimir was, I had to leave, I couldn't stand to watch Klaus die, and once I left i vowed never to change back into my human form accept once when I compelled a human to go into the forest and pull the stake out of Klaus, and well I guess now.

It looked like she was done with her story so I spoke up "Well it loks like Rob is going to need a bigger bed." I said retreating to my bed.

"That's it, I pour my heart out to you, ask to risk my life to help you and all you care about are the BEDS!" she screamed.

"Maybe that's why your first team was weaker, because they didn't get there sleep." I said calmly, but as I continued my voice got higher and higher until I was screaming. "Or maybe it is because Klaus got incompitant fighters who couldn't keep their feelings to themselves, and who would rather protect the person that made them a FUCKING BLOOD WHORE RATHER THAN THE PERSON THAT YOU LOVED! YOU THOUGHT TELLING US WAS GOING TO FIX EVERYTHING? I'M SORRY, BUT YOU DON'T GET A SECOND CHANCE TO KILL THE PEOPLE THAT ARE GOING TO DO MORE GOOD IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS THAN YOU WILL DO IN YOUR ENTIRE IMMORTAL LIFE! AND IF YOU THINK I AM GOING TO LET YOU GET WITHIN 100 YARDS OF VLADIMIR YOU ARE SADLY MISTAKEN! Now sorry I didn't wait until morning to tell you, I might have cooled off by then but no, you couldn't let me got to BED!" I screamed at her

"You and Rob can have the pull out couch" I whispered right before I walked out of the room and slammed the door shut behind me as I went down to the front desk.

"I'm going to need another room please, just one bed" I said handing the clerk my credit card.

She gave me the room key and I went to it. I sat on the bed, and left everything else untouched, I didn't even turn on the lights.

I just sat there and thought about everything that had happened. I don't know how long I was there but at one point the door opened and someone walked in. I didn't bother to see who it was, figuring it was Dimitri or Lissa but the voice that spoke surprised me. "I told you she doesn't like pretty women" Klaus said and I couldn't help but laugh. I just leaned my head on his shoulder and thought about how nice it was to laugh, I hadn't done it in so long.

I finally turned to him and said "I'm sorry."

"What for?" he asked, and I laughed again. "No I'm serious, you have nothing to be sorry for, Niki had no right to do what she did." He told me, and I looked at him "Neither did I, you shouldn't have figured out that way, it wasn't right, I honestly didn't know I was talking out loud." He looked at me questioningly and I realized I hadn't told him what I was talking about yet. "I mean about the part that she loved you, I know that you are with Wendy, and that must have hurt her, and I couldn't forgive myself If I had something to do with ruining that. It's obvious that Niki still loves you, any girl can see it, including Wendy, and I just don't know if Wendy is jealous or insecure, or something, and I don't want to threaten anything that you two might have. Especially since you and Niki can live forever, and Wendy can't" I told him.

"You know, I was supposed to came down here to make you feel better, and you are making me feel better when I didn't even know I felt bad." He said with a chuckle.

"Well this is making me feel better, because I felt horrible for how you found out, because I really do see you as a friend, and I meant what I said, when I said I would die for you, and so I don't like it when I hurt my friends."

We sat there in silence for a while before I said "I guess we should get back now?"I asked. "Not if you don't want to, I don't sleep anyway, I could stand watch and you could sleep here." Klaus told me.

"Oh yeah, I forgot, you don't sleep, so we won't go back, but I'm not going to go to sleep, I just want to talk." And that's what we did, all night, about everything.

He told me the whole story about when him and his other friends went after the originals, and then we did even more planning on how to kill Irvetta.

At around 5 o'clock in the morning (our time) we tried to sneak back in to the room but to no avail. Lissa was sitting right by the door, and it was obvious that she had fallen asleep, but when I walked in she woke right up. She did a silent kind of scream, and ran to give me a hug.

"Oh Rose, I'm so glad you're okay, and I'm so glad I'm your friend, I never want you to yell at me, that was scary." And now I was losing track of how many times someone had made me laugh in the past 24 hours.

"Of course I'm okay Lissa, I just needed to let off some steam so I didn't blow up at anyone I actually cared about."

Even though we were whispering, Dimitri being the good guardian that he is woke up. He walked over to me and took me in his arms, he pushed me to the wall and kissed me like he hadn't gotten to kiss me in months. I'm not saying I didn't like it, I loved it, but it was very unexpected. He finally pulled back and we were both out of breath, when I looked around Lissa and Klaus were gone and that made me smile, that they gave us our privacy. "I'm surprised you didn't come down and try to give me one of your Zen life lessons on anger management." I told him jokingly. "I did, but the receptionist wouldn't tell me what room you were in" he said. But then how did—ohhhhhh, compulsion" I said answering my own question. "Well I'm glad you tried, and I'm even more glad that you didn't succeed." I told him, as I stood on my tippy-toes to give him another kiss.

By now everyone was up, including Niki. "Okay, you have Irvetta to prove yourself, if you prove to be useful, and not just a waste of space then you can come with us, if you just get in our way, or jeopardize our mission in any way I will kill you myself, and put an end to you miserable immortal life. And I still will not let you be the one to kill Vladimir, that will be Klaus." I told her giving him a look that said I remembered our conversation last night, and how much all of this meant to him. Niki just nodded and then went to stand by Rob, looks like he won't be the only single one for long.

"We are still going as plan, today we will leave, and check all major cities starting from the biggest to the smallest, the reason we aren't going in order that they are placed is because I would rather waste time resting and driving then searching cities that she probably isn't going to be in. Even though she can survive sunlight, I can guarantee the battle will be at night, just like with Rosalie, because she is going to want all of the help she can get, so we will stay on this schedule, searching and practicing and driving while it is dark, and sleeping while it is light.

Everyone nodded and I knew that despite my explosion last night I still had everyone's trust, and I was more in control than ever because they all saw how much I cared for all of them, and how mean I could be if they wronged me."

We got in the cars and the first two cities were a bust. It was about midnight when we got to the third city, and when we did Klaus and I both felt something.

"Hey guys, I think she is here." I told them all, and they all immediately got more alert. We started checking out all of the hotels and houses and condos along the shore, and as we were walking I looked out to the sea and there she was, with an army of Strigoi, all standing ON the water.

At first look she was beautiful, blonde hair the color of the sand, and the dark tanned skin of someone who spends hours a day in the sun, she had blue eyes the color of the sky during twilight, obviously everything besides the hair was a mask, but she looked like the definition of water.

But when you looked closer you could see the coldness and the cruelty in her eyes, but the thing that scared me the most was the power that I saw there. It was more power than I could have ever imagined and it scared me to think that she was only the second most powerful original, third if you counted Klaus, I could tell right now that this battle was going to be hard.

No one moved for quite some time, finally she spoke up, and even though she was so far away her voice made it sound like she was right next to you. "Didn't you learn your lesson last time little brother, it isn't going to work, we are all more prepared." She said "Well so is he" I said, before he could say anything, and when I did she seemed to notice us for the first time, although I knew that wasn't true, she had sized us all up before we even went into that last hotel. "Oh, you brought me more people to kill, how delightful." She said with a laugh.

I started to run towards her, but I noticed that I was sinking in the water, she was only keeping her team afloat. She was laughing as she watched me try to run in the water, and since I was moving so fast in less than a second, I yelled Mia's name, and by the time I would have been knee deep I was now walking on the water, well running. She immediately stopped laughing, and by the time she could register what was happening I was right in front of her and used all of my momentum from my running to throw into my punch that sent her flying about 50 feet backwards.

As soon as that happened I was surrounded, but they were all focusing on me, so much so that none of them noticed all of my friends coming up behind them.

I vaguely noticed some humans that still happened to be up starring at the people moving at inhuman speed, fighting on top of the Dead Sea. I also noticed that Niki was doing pretty good, she was taking on three Strigoi right now and she was holding her own. But I got my head back into the battle, and unlike with Rosalie, Irvetta wasn't afraid to fight, despite her little fall.

She was currently fighting Dimitri, and I had no doubt that he would win, but he wasn't fighting just her, he was also fighting other Strigoi. I was hoping that this would be a good time for Christian to go head to head with Irvetta but when I looked at him he was also fighting Strigoi, lots of them, like 10. I looked around and I was scared, we might actually lose this one, and it's only the second one. But then I saw Mia and she was just standing there, none of the Strigoi were anywhere near her, they were all just watching them, kind of like I was. All she was doing was moving her lips, and what started out slow became faster and faster, but Dimitri was in real trouble, we all were, so I had to interrupt "MIA, IRVETTA, NOW!"She looked up from what she was doing and then looked over to Dimitri and then back at me. She nodded, and as soon as she moved her feet, the Strigoi that looked like they were under some kind of spell went after her, and I had to make sure that they didn't.

Once she got to Dimitri, within seconds the other Strigoi Dimitri was fighting were gone, and then it was just Dimitri, Irvetta, and Mia.

The water that was under them began to rise, and I wasn't sure if it was Mia or Irvetta doing this, but the higher it got the more I thought it was Irvetta's attempt to get them separated from the rest of the group.

With my moments distraction I didn't notice other figures in the water moving towards us, and more Strigoi going down. By the time one got close enough for me to see them I saw what they were, mermaids.


	11. Chapter 11

Okay, so i'm really sorry at how long it took, and it will probably take about this long for the next chapter to come out because i write ahead, and unfortunately i have now caught up and have to actually write the next chapter D: So if you guys wanted them shorter i could get it out faster, but if you want it this length, which i know i would rater have if i was reading, then it is going to take some time. Don't you just hate school, it gets in the way of everything FUN! :( So i hope you enjoy the next chapter, and try to guess where they are going next, if you guess it right you will get a surprise!

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><p>Chapter 11… Where are we going?<p>

I saw more and more mermaids coming, and now I think I know what Mia was doing, she was calling them. With the help of the mermaids Christian was down to only fighting one Strigoi, and I could tell he was trying to conserve his energy for the fight he knew was coming. So I staked the Strigoi that I was fighting and then ran over and stabbed Christians Strigoi in the back.

"Christian" I said out of breath from the run over to him. "Mia, Dimitri, Irvetta, now" I huffed and he turned around and looked at them. Then I saw this look of concentration come over all of his features, and I knew that all I had to do was keep other Strigoi from breaking this concentration.

As I was fighting some of the Strigoi I glanced over at Christian, and saw him doing the same hand motions that he did the first time he made a fireball. But this time instead of it being the size of a baseball it was bigger than one of those huge exercise balls, and when he finally threw it I was afraid it was going to hit either Dimitri or Mia, but despite its huge size it hit Irvetta, and only Irvetta.

When it hit her, her concentration was broken and her water tower came crashing down, along with the people on top of it. Every one at ground level was hit with a huge wave of water that got us all soaking wet in the freezing cold water, as Mia, Dimitri, and Irvetta fell from 30 feet in the air.

The first thing I did was run over to see if Dimitri was okay, I knew that Christian could hold his own. I got to Dimitri and he was unconscious. I started to gently run my fingers through his hair, and he finally woke up after what seemed like hours but was really only a couple of seconds. When his eyes opened he looked at me and then to the sky behind me "So beautiful" he said, and I thought he had a concussion. But when I looked up I saw what he meant. It was raining, but not just water, also little bits of fire the size of raindrops, that simmered out when they hit the water below.

I looked to Christian to see if he was doing this and what I saw was even more beautiful, and frightening. It was Christian and Irvetta, they were fighting, but they were standing 20 feet apart. Christian had a streak of fire coming from in between his two hands, and Irvetta had a stream of water coming from the same place, and where they met in the middle, they exploded and created the fire rain.

Where the two opposite elements met kept moving, closer to Irvetta, then closer to Christian. For one second when Christian had the upper hand he broke his concentration and looked at me. Immediately he turned back, but I knew what he was trying to tell me. I told Dimitri to stay where he was and I called over Klaus and Eddie and we all positioned ourselves behind Irvetta.

Christian could look at us now without breaking his conversation and he motioned for us to move back. We kept moving back further and further and I had no idea why Christian was doing this, why he wouldn't just let us steak her, but I figured he had a good reason. Once we were about 30 feet away he told us to stop, and in one huge burst the fire moved all of the way until it hit Irvetta's chest. When it did there was a huge explosion, like really huge, every Strigoi within a twenty foot perimeter was vaporized, and now I saw why Christian had us move back. The other reason was because of Irvetta, the force of the shock wave sent her flying, and she landed right at our feet. Of course she didn't stay there long, she was up before any of us could get the drop on her, and she was ready to fight.

The one thing that we were better at then Strigoi was working as a team. That was something we were trained to do, we knew how not to get in each other's way. Klaus wasn't as good at it as Eddie and I and after he started getting in the way of a few of our punches I finally told him to just stand down. Once Klaus was gone Eddie and I worked together like a well oiled machine, alternating punches and never missing a beat.

Irvetta could hardly keep up, and finally Eddie got to a point where he could hold back her arms, but when he did she used him as leverage to lean against him and kick me with both feet, and the kick sent me flying. She used the push off of me to swing up and over Eddie and flip him on his back, and she landed on her knees right beside him. She stood up with a look of victory on her face as everyone was starring at her in amazement. I couldn't even move, I was in too much pain, and I could bet Eddie was feeling the same way, but it was okay because that second Dimitri came up behind her and drove his stake through her heart, and right as her body stiffened and eyes widened in shock Dimitri leaned in and whispered in her ear "Never kick my wife." And then she died.

After Dimitri staked Irvetta he came running over to me, he helped me up and for a couple of seconds I saw stars but then they went away and I could think clearly. I looked around and noticed that no one was over by Eddie, mainly I noticed that Lissa wasn't over by Eddie, I turned around and found out why, everyone was huddled around an unconscious Mia. "Dimitri go check on Eddie!" I yelled as I ran over to Mia. All thoughts of exhaustion and my own injuries thrown out of my head. When I got there Lissa was in hysteria, I put my arms around her "I tried healing her Rose, it's not working, I don't know why it's not working!" she cried into my shoulder. "Looks like we are going to have to do this the old fashioned way. Lissa, go check on Eddie, Klaus carry Mia back onto the sand, we all have to get off of this water, we don't know how long this spell or whatever will last." Once we were all safely on the sand and Eddie was awake I began barking out orders again. "Klaus compel all of the people that saw something happen, Rob go get some bottles of water from the hotel, Wendy, go over to my bag and get a couple of blood bas and hand them out to all of the moroi, but leave one for Mia, Niki, use your speed to get to the closest convenience store and get me two marinating needles, some rubber tubing, sugar, and salt, Christian, just back away until I call you." Everyone just stood around, confused at my requests "NOW!" I yelled and Everyone was gone.

Once Rob and Niki left I felt for Mia's pulse, and it wasn't there. I panicked and started to give her CPR. Then Eddie came up and he was hysterical. "Oh my god, Mia…Rose, you only do CPR if she isn't breathing, oh my god Rose, she isn't breathinh? She's going to die, I never told her I loved her, Rose what—" "EDDIE! Shut up, you need to calm down, and leave me alone, we have two guardians here that are trained to do this, we don't need a third, just go talk to Lissa." I told him as calmly as I could.

Oncwe Eddie left I concentrated on Mia. "Dimitri, give me your shirt." He took off his shirt and for a moment I was distracted, I mean how couldn't you be, but I had to stay focused. "Check her pulse." I told him as I took his shirt and ripped off the bottom hem, I threw the rest back at him. "She has a pulse but it's weak" Dimitri told me, and just then I saw Rob and Niki. "Here, you keep doing CPR" I told him right when Rob and Niki ended up at my side. First I took everything out of the packages, the tubing was too long so I bit it in half, then I stuck the two needles into either end. I opened one of the water bottles and poured out about a third of the liquid, then I added the salt and the sugar and called over Christian. "What do you need?" he asked "Heat this water, this stuff will never dissolve at room temperature." He heated the water and soon it was getting to hot to hold, I grabbed Dimitri's shirt that he failed to put back on and put that between my hand and the bottle. Once it was all dissolved I put the cap on and shook it just for good measure "Now is there any way that you can cool it Christian, like an opposite of fire thing." He shook his head. "Damn, well we cant wait for it to cool on it's own" after I said that there was a woosh and then Klaus was standing in front of me holding ice cubes. We put them into the water bottle until it turned room temperature. I tied the part of Dimitri's shirt that I ripped off around the top of Mia's arm, and when I touched her skin it was as cold as the night air. "Christian, keep her warm" I told him as I was tapping her arm trying to get a vain. I stuck one end of the needle into the water bottle and squeezed until no more air was coming out of the tube, and then I stuck the other needle into Mia's arm. All I could do now was keep pressure on the water bottle, and pray.

"Dimitri, you can stop now, this is all we can do" I told him, and I felt her pulse again, and it was still weak, but it was there. We all just sat around waiting and watching, and Lissa was still trying to calm Eddie down. After a couple more minutes I saw Mia's eyes flutter, and then she began choking.

Although it didn't seem like it, that was a good thing, it meant she was awake and breathing. I quick took out the makeshift IV and just in time to, because right then Eddie came running over and lifted her into his arms. Eddie put her down and kissed her. It was so sweet and I just looked at Dimitri, remembering our first kiss, the night of the lust charm, and it seemed like he was doing the same thing.

I hated to break up the moment I knew both of them had waited so long for, but I had to make sure Mia was okay, especially since Lissa couldn't heal her. "Mia" I said softly, and she quickly pulled away from Eddie, turning beat red when she realized that everyone was there, and we all just laughed. "Are you okay?" I asked in between giggles. "Yeah I feel fine, why wouldn't I have, Lissa healed me." She said in kind of a duh voice. "That's the thing Mia, she couldn't heal you, and we don't know why." Her face immediately changed and then she had a look of concentration come over her features "No I feel fine, great actually" she said with a smile looking towards Eddie.

"Well what did you do to me Rose?" she asked. "Well you weren't breathing so we gave you CPR, and then I gave you fluids." I told her, I mean I hadn't really done much. "Well maybe that was it, I could have been dehydrated, Lissa can only fix injuries, and she probably did fix all of my injuries from the fall, but dehydration isn't an injury, from what I understand, she uses the… materials-I guess you could call them-in your body to speed up what would naturally happen, but my body didn't have any fluids to give, so the problem couldn't be fixed." Mia concluded, and Lissa looked very relived to hear that. "Well there is only one way to find out, if it wasn't under these circumstances I would never ask you to do this, but Lissa, can you heal me?" I asked.

I felt the familiar sensation of hot and cold and watched as all of my cuts and bruises faded away, and felt as my achy muscles, and soar bones miraculously got better. It wasn't until that moment that I realized I was still soar from the battle with Rosalie, and that I haven't felt this good since then. "Well it's definitely not you Liss, I feel great." I told her "You look great too" she said with a smile. I looked over to Niki and she seemed to be hiding behind Rob, probably trying not to catch my attention. "Niki, can I talk to you?" I asked, she looked at me and then regretfully left her spot next to Rob and followed me off to the side, but she wasn't the only one, Dimitri was following her. "Dimitri, what are you doing?" "Making sure you don't explode again." He said in an all serious tone.

I turned back to Niki and she looked thankful that Dimitri was there. "Well I just wanted to tell you that you can stay, because it is nice to have another person that can move as fast as Klaus can, and I saw that today, maybe not during the battle, because I was a little preoccupied, but when Mia needed help, and there was no one left that could run to the closest convenience store and be back within a minute. So you can stay." She had a smile for a second, and then her face just went back to that "I don't care kind of look" but I knew it made her happy, I could see it in her eyes.

As we were walking back to the group I noticed Eddie and Mia giving each other lovey dovey looks, and I just thought about how close we came to almost losing today. I looked out on the water and saw the sun rising, and all of the Strigoi that weren't fortunate enough to sink in the water, or get away in time were being burned into ash by the sun.

I looked back at the group and they looked absolutely exhausted. "Okay, lets not even go home, we will stay in this hotel tonight." I said pointing to the hotel right behind us. Everyone agreed and we tiredly walked in and all went straight to bed.

The next day we went back to the other hotel and got our stuff so that we could get on the plane. "Okay guys, so we almost lost that one." i was beginning to tell them "We almost lost _someone_ in that one, so once we get to wherever we are going, we need to lay low a while, and just practice. By the way, you never actually told us where we are going" i asked turning to Klaus.

"Well that's because I didn't want you guys to get too excited about it, and I already told the pilot where to go so don't worry he knows, but you are just going to have to wait and see." He said, as we began walking towards the plane. "Ugh, have I told you that you can really get on my nerves." I said as I went up the steps to the plane. I looked back and he just had a big grin on his face.

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	12. Chapter 12

So for those of you who guessed, THEY'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD! Hope you like the chapter, sorry for the wait, hopefully i can get the next one out sooner.

Chapter 12…

We all slept on the plane, so I didn't really know how long the flight was because I had forgot to check the time when we left, all I knew was that it was dark when we left and the sun was just setting. But that didn't tell much with time changes and all of that stuff, so I was totally clueless. Once we got all of our stuff out of the jet and got out onto the tarmac I had a feeling of where we were. It was cold, but it was winter so anywhere was cold, but it wasn't snowing. I looked around and saw palm trees everywhere, I looked at Klaus and smiled "Florida?" I asked quietly and he just nodded his head. It looked like everyone else was coming to the same conclusion I was and I just couldn't help but say "We're going to Disney World!" in a sarcastic tone, and then my phone rang.

"There you are, finally I have been trying to call you." I heard the all too familiar voice of Sydney say. "Yeah sorry about that, I was on a plane, what's up Syd?" I asked "That plane wouldn't have happened to be flying into Florida would it have?" She asked me. I was shocked at the luck "Well yes, yes it was." I told her "Where in Florida?" I looked to Klaus because I knew he had heard the conversation and he mouthed "Orlando" I repeated that to Sydney and it seemed like she wanted to scream. "I NEED YOU TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD RIGHT NOW!" She yelled at me "You must be kidding me, Disney World, really?" I asked her skeptically "YES DISNEY WORLD, GET YOUR SKINNY LITTLE ASS OVER THERE THIS INSTANT THERE IS A MASSIVE STRIGOI ATTACK AND I NEED YOUR HELP, THIS WILL MAKE UP FOR ALL OF THE FAVORS YOU HAVE EVER OWED ME, JUST GO!" she yelled into the phone "Okay, okay, we will be there soon" I told her and she hung up.

"Okay everyone in the cars NOW! We are going to Disney World!" They all looked at me like I was crazy but they got in any way, and on our way there they all got changed and battle ready. We were there in record time, I never went less than 20 miles over the speed limit, and I was swerving in and out of so many cars Dimitri was having trouble keeping up.

When we got there I had no idea where to go, I mean Disney World is HUGE, there were so many different parks. But I just followed my gut, literally, and before we knew it I pulled up to Disney's Animal Kingdom.

When we got out of the car I could see what Sydney was talking about. There were people running around and screaming, blood all over the ground, and bodies in the most unlikely places. It was a scary thing to see, and I didn't want to ever see anything like it ever again. But for right now I didn't have a choice, I had to go in there.

We all ran in the entrance and the deeper we got the worse it got, more blood, more bodies, more Strigoi. We all had our stakes out and whenever we saw a Strigoi we didn't hesitate to stake it.

We started ushering out all of the humans, and we saw that there were some more guardians there, but they were completely outnumbered, and the looked so relieved that we were there. Slowly there were less and less humans in the park and I could really asses what was going on, and it was scary. Hundreds of Strigoi, way too many Strigoi to be on their own, I looked at Klaus and he had the same look on his face. "This feels like an original" he said and I just nodded "I was thinking the same thing." I told him. "But where is he?" I asked and as soon as I said that all of the Strigoi stopped, the few guardians that happened to be fighting them staked them and then they stopped too. And every Strigoi looked at me. It was like time had frozen, and then standing right in front of us was Elijah. At least who I thought was Elijah.

From what Klaus told me he was strongest in earth, but looking at him now, he was earth. His shoulder length hair was so many shades of brown, auburn, rust, red and every other color of the ground that we stood on. His eyes were amazing, the color of tree leaves in the spring shinning with the radiance and power of the sun. If he wasn't someone who I had to kill I would say he was hot.

All of this, from the Strigoi freezing, to me sizing up Elijah happened within a second and Klaus, Dimitri, Eddie, Niki, and I instinctively formed a circle around the Moroi, even though they didn't really need protection any more, it was just a force of habit. When there a threat, protect the Moroi.

"Hello brother." Elijah said looking at Klaus, fancy meeting you here, and so soon after you killed Irvetta, are you sure you're ready?" He asked completely ignoring everybody else. "What the hell!" I said "First off, Kluas isn't the only one here, I don't know why all the originals pretend like he is, because it's a big mistake, and you just made it, and that's what got Irvetta killed, because it wasn't Klaus that staked her, it was Dimitri, and before that it was me, so really you shouldn't make the same mistake that both of you dim witted sisters made and don't under estimate us, it's insulting!" Once I got that out I felt much better, I was tired of them always paying attention to Klaus, and when I finished I saw everyone looking at me like I had two heads, I just shrugged and looked back towards Elijah. He turned and said to his fellow Strigoi "Ooooooh I like her, she's feisty, let me be the one to finish her." He said with a chuckle and then turned back to Klaus. They went in to some brotherly banter and I just turned to Wendy and gave her a nod saying that she would have to be the one to finish him because air is opposite of earth. But thinking back on his question I really wasn't sure if we were ready, we were planning on coming here and practicing, and when Sydney called I thought that this was going to be an easy job compared to what we were used to, but seeing Eelijah changed everything.

I only caught the end of the conversation that they were having but that doesn't mean that it scared me any less "—well we'll see, won't wee? NOW!" Elijah yelled and then disappeared out of thin air, and all the Strigoi moved at once.

Within seconds we were surrounded by hundreds of Strigoi, most of the humans were out of the park and in the parking lot being convinced by alchemists that what they just saw was all just a figment of their imagination, and that they never really knew those people-their best friends and even family-that they just saw die.

The Strigoi came at us all at once, which was a new and much better tactic that I really didn't like, because Rosalie and Iretta sent them one at a time which made them very easy pickings.

"The only way we have a chance is if we stick together, if we split up they surround each one of us and we die!" I shouted over all of the noise. And everyone nodded and I noticed the few other guardians that were there get into a circle and start fighting Strigoi. Dimitri, Eddie, Klaus, Niki, and I all stayed in place around the Moroi and the first thing that I noticed was all of the Strigoi around us instantly burst into flame. They all started freaking out and when they bumped into one another Strigoi that previously weren't on fire were. I looked at Christian and he wasn't doing anything any more, this was all just their own stupidity. The first few were very easy to stake, but it was hard to fight when you were worried about hitting your partner beside you, or the Moroi behind you, nut I still had some pretty kick ass fights.

The first Strigoi that I actually had to fight in a while cam up and everyone else was otherwise occupied so I was on my own. She threw a punch headed towards my face, and despite the strength that she had I caught the punch mere inches from my face. My trainings with Klaus clearly paid off. I grabbed he fist and twisted, and unless she wanted the pain of a broken arm she was going to twist with it. When she did I took my stake and drove it through her heart. While I was bending over I saw feet enter my line of vision so on my way up I took my stake with me and in a total blind shot rammed it through where I thought the chest would be and was rewarded with a delightful scream. I flipped my head up, and the hair out of my eyes and saw that I hit him in the stomach, so in one quick smooth motion I pulled it out and rammed it through his heart, he didn't even see it coming.

After that the fights got harder as the Moroi got more tired, and so couldn't use as much magic, and Wendy was saving all of the energy that she could knowing she would have to go up against Elijah. But slowly the Strigoi's numbers started to decrease, and that was a boost in our confidence and our energy.

It was awesome realizing me, a regular dhampir could move faster than a regular Strigoi, and it was all thanks to Klaus. All of the sudden every single Strigoi started to burn, their screams, so loud that I couldn't even hear Dimitri who was right next to me. I thought Christian might be doing it, but when I looked over at him he looked just as confused as everyone else. Then it hit me, like a brick wall. "The sun" I said, and even though I screamed it no one could hear me because of the screams. "THE SUN!" I yelled again and pointed over to the horizon and everyone looked.

I don't know what would have happened if the sun hadn't come up, because frankly we were losing, but I didn't want to think about it. Some of the Strigoi that were older and stronger weren't burning as fast and got a chance to run inside one of the nearby buildings, but most of them just caught fire and turned to ash.

But within thirty seconds there wasn't a Strigoi in sight, either burned or in hiding and Elijah was not happy about that. It wasn't just a guess, I knew because just that instant Elijah came out, with a look on his face that said he had just lost over half of his Strigoi army and was seriously pissed off. Of course I didn't his stare with my own mean stare instead I gave him the coldest smile I had, that I stuffed away for people I really hate. It wasn't the kind I gave to Dimitri, or even Christian, it was cold and heartless, and a lot scarier than any mean stare could ever be, and it told him that he didn't have a chance.

He looked at me and I saw a flash of fear before he covered it up with grim determination."You ready to lose?" I asked him. He just charged for us, but before he got half way there he fell to his knees and looked horrified. I looked over to Wendy and realized what was happening. I was horrified and really hoped Lissa didn't realize it too. I mean I don't know what I thought she was going to do, I just never thought of this, she was suffocating him, and then drowning him in oxygen. I knew how scared Lissa was when this happened to her, and I knew how painful it was too, I looked at Dimitri and he had the same look on his face that I had. Fear. He knew what was going on too. We both looked at Lissa at the same time and from there all hell broke loose. Lissa realized what was going on and screamed. That got everyone's attention, including Wendy's and That was all Elijah needed, the concentration was broken and he was up on his feet. He was over by Lissa's side within milliseconds and grabbed her and took her away far from any bodies reach. "Thank you" he said right as he sunk his teeth into her, she didn't even have time to scream it happened so fast. I didn't have enough time to run over there, she would be dead before I even got close. He was using her as a shield so I had no clear shot at his head and in that instant I thought she was going to die. I had spent so much time protecting her and now she was just going to die.

She lifted her hands and touched his head, he immediately let go of her and his eyes flashed open. They were no longer that beautiful green that they once were, they were white, all white, no pupil, no nothing. His face was blank and his body was limp, he let out an ear splitting scream and then she collapsed, and Elijah's eyes turned green, and his body went rigid with tension.

With that scream all of the Strigoi that were in hiding from the sun came out. They ran from shadow to shadow and were hardly harmed. Klaus spread out his hands and when he raised them so did every roller coaster, building and restaurant in Animal Kingdom. They all lit on fire and again I thought it was Christian, but no, it was Elijah. This was the first time that I had actually seen any of the originals use another element then the one they were strongest at, which just told us how much stronger they were becoming.

"We have to get Lissa and get out of here, we aren't ready!" I yelled. Christian ran over and grabbed his girlfriends limp body and right as we were about to run away from the impending sun tolerant Stigoi and flying flaming roller coasters Mia yelled "NO!" It was the most control I had ever heard in her voice and it made me stop, as it carried throughout the entire park. All of the noise coming from the parking lot—where the humans were being checked out—stopped, and they seemed to notice for the first time the floating roller coasters. They stood there, all with the same facial expression as me, only where they were surprised at the roller coasters I was surprised at Mia, she looked surprised herself but stood by what she said. "Come on Mia we have to go." Eddie told her. "No" she said "I can do this."

We all looked at her confused and then she did the same kind of hand motion that Elijah had done but it looked like it took a lot more out of her. And instead of roller coasters coming out of the ground it was all of the water, from the entire park. All of the lakes, puddles, misters, everything. The water that was in front of us created a giant circle around us as it went behind Mia. Then she took her hands up from behind her head, over, and to right in front of her, and shortly after the water followed, flowing in the exact arc that her hands made, only about forty feet above our heads. It easily missed us, but not Elijah, and not his Strigoi, and definitely not his roller coasters. The fire attached to the roller coasters went out immediately, and most of the Strigoi got swept out into the sun where they burned, and I followed the last of the tidal wave to right where Klaus was standing.

He was concentrating too hard on not falling over, and watching all of his Strigoi slowly die that he didn't even see me coming, which was good for me because I drove my stake right through his heart "YOU BASTARD!" yelled to him right before his eyes closed for good.

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><p>So what did you think, loved it, hated it, it was bad right? i know, don't hate me D:<p>

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	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13… You could have been faster

All of the roller coasters that were in the air seconds before came crashing down, smashing the few Strigoi that had survived the water and the sun. It was the loudest noise that I had ever heard, and that was saying something with all of the noises I had heard that day, I was surprised that I wasn't deaf. The ground shook so hard that I almost fell over. You could still hear the ripping of metal as it was adjusting to it's new position. One it got quiet it was eerily quiet. The only sound I heard was my own breathing and it sounded like a jet engine.

All the humans and Alchemists that were in the parking lot were frozen in shock, and were all staring at Elijah's lifeless body in horror. I quick picked it up, looked back at my friends seeing they were okay, other then Lissa who obviously wasn't, but everyone else seemed fine.

I nodded at them giving them the silent message and we just walked away through the crowd of still frozen people. Me holding Elijah fireman style careful not to move the stake, and Christian holding Lissa bridal style. One brave alchemist stepped up and said "You can't take him, he's a Strigoi we will handle him." I remembered him from the Sams battle where I killed Klaus and said "Kind of like you handled him?" I asked pointing to Klaus and the Alchemist got really quiet and starred at Klaus obviously noticing him for the first time. "Yeah, that's what I thought" I said and kept walking.

When we got to the cars I felt like I could finally relax, but I couldn't Lissa was still injured, and she was the person that usually healed us. "Klaus, how long would it take you to run to Montana?" I asked, he was definitely caught off guard but then thought about it said "probably an hour, maybe a little less." Once he said that I took out my phone. It took three rings until I heard "Yes my darling Rosie, what can I do for you?" Adrian asked.

"Don't make me regret calling you." I told him, after a pause I continued "How long would it take you to get to Orlando?" I asked "Well, um, I would have to pack, and I would have to find another jet because you have mine, so maybe three and a half hours. Why?" He told me "That's too long, Klaus will be there in an hour, be ready, we are in require of your services." I said, it was hard keeping my composure and all I wanted to do was cry, but I held it together somehow. But Adrian could obviously hear the tremor in my voice because his went from cheerful and sarcastic, then confused, to seriously worried. "Rose tell me what's wrong." "It's Lissa" I choked out in a sob "He bit her, Elijah bit her!" I screamed as I collapsed onto the ground.

Dimitri took the phone from me, sat down in the parking lot and took me in his arms. "Just pack for a week, we can wash clothes if it's longer than that." Dimitri said and hung up. He pulled me into his chest and I cried. Everything that had happened since we had started I cried about. All of the killing, they were Strigoi, but not always, they used to be actual people who had families, and I no doubt had killed hundreds, a hundred peoples sons and daughters, thousands of peoples friends, and it was all my fault.

I cried at how close I came to Losing Mia, and how we might now lose Lissa, my best friend since Kindergarten when I threw a book at a teacher for making me spell Rosmarie and Lissa spell Dragimor. All of the other things that only Lissa and I knew about, all of the secrets that we shared, Viktor taking her to be his own personal healer, all of the dead animals, running away to Portland together, it was all going to be lost, only one of us was going to know all of the secrets that we shared.

Dimitri just picked me up and put me into the back of the car. I faintly heard him telling Klaus to go and get Adrian "Blood" I said and Dimitri looked at me confused "In the trunk, Klaus is going to need blood, unless you want him making a little pit stop on the way." I told him and then I fell asleep clutching Dimitri's duster in a death grip.

When I woke up I was no longer in my bloody clothes, but my pajamas and in an amazingly comfortable bed with a huge down comforter. I looked out the window and it was still light. I looked around the room and it was beautiful. All grey and yellow, a beautiful grey velvet couch at the foot of the bed, heavy grey drapes that made it look like midnight in the room. I walked over and opened one of the doors and it was a bathroom, not what I originally wanted but what I needed none the less. I turned the shower on and stepped in. My muscles relax, and the water turned pink as the blood washed out of my hair.

When I got out I found suitcase, got dressed and opened the second of the three doors, nope still not the right one. This one was to the closet. I walked over to the third door and opened it a little more forcefully then I should have and heard a THUMP.

"Owwww, what the hell?" I heard someone say. It took me a while in my drowsy state to realize what happened, but then I figured that I had hit someone with the door, and then the voice, I hit Adrian with a door. "OH MY GOD ARIDAN!" I choked out between fits of laughter. I hugged him despite his hands holding his face. "Are you okay?" I asked. "Yeah I'm fine." He said shaking his head to clear it. "I was looking in the bedrooms for Lissa." He said "Oh you just got here, you didn't heal her yet?" I asked "No I didn't have a chance to I was looking for her." He said in a duh tone. I just smacked him lightly on the shoulder and walked out. "Well she's not in there." I told him "Obviously"

I walked out into the main area with him and the first thing I noticed was Klaus passed out on the couch. "I thought you said you didn't sleep" I told him mockingly. He just smiled and after I blinked he was inches away from me "We don't" he said "At least not the way you were talking about" a very sexual tone. I just pushed him down and he flew across the room and landed lazily back on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. Adrian was just staring at me in shock. "What?" I said and just walked away to the next door.

I listened through the door and my eyes widened in shock "not her room" I whispered, and either Adrian ignored me or didn't hear me and he opened the door anyway. He came out of that room faster than I had ever seen anyone come out of any room and his face was white, even for a Moroi. "Definitely not her room." He agreed "I told you." I laughed.

I tried the next one and saw Wendy sleeping in the bed, and Dimitri sleeping on the same type of couch that was in my room. I walked over, grabbed a blanket and pulled it over him, gave him a kiss on the forehead and quietly shut the door. "Okay this one has got to be hers." I said as we were approaching the last door. We walked inn and were met by a worried out of his mind Christian. "Thank God you're here." He said to Adrian "Wow, never thought I would here you say those words Christian." I said in mock shock "Shut up Rosie." "If you ever want little Christians running around you will never call me Rosie again Fire Crotch!" I shot back "BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT UP!" Adrian yelled, Christian both looked at each other and smiled and just like that our little fight was over and the worry instantly went back to Christians face.

I looked over at Adrian and although it didn't look like he was doing anything I knew he was. The color, or what little color there was returned to Lissa's face. After a couple more seconds she shot up with a big intake of breath. I couldn't help the smile of relief that spread across my face. I ran over to her and took her in my arms in a bone crushing hug. "I'm so sorry Lissa, I couldn't get to you, there was no way, I wasn't fast enough." I cried "Rose calm down, there was nothing you could have done." She said stroking my hair like I was a child.

"But I should have been able to Lissa, I should have tried something instead I just stood there. You should have always been behind me, I shouldn't have let him take you in the first place. I should have protected you." "Rose I can protect myself, you can't be protecting me 24/7" She told me "But I should, that's my job, I can never let my guard down and I failed." I told her "Rose I forgive you." She said, and that was what I needed more than anything, not telling me it wasn't my fault, because deep down I knew it was, but that despite it being my fault she still forgave me.

I gave her a hug and saw over her shoulder Christian giving her longing looks. I let go and told her goodbye. "Come one Adrian let them have some privacy." I told him as I pulled his arm but he resisted. "Nope, I'm not leaving without a thank you." Lissa turned to him and smiled. "Thank you Adrian" She said with a smile and gave him a hug "Any time Cuz." He told her as he hugged her back. And finally he let me drag him out of the room."Your lucky, I wouldn't have even said thank you." I told him as I shot the door.

"So Adrian I never got to ask, but how did you and Klaus get here, I mean did he carry you bridal style or monkey?" I asked with a smirk as I plopped down on the couch next to where Klaus was "resting". Adrian's face turned white for the second time in a couple of hours "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response" he said sitting on the other side of me, and I just laughed.

The sun was just starting to set and with how little sleep I had been getting recently I really just wanted to go to bed, but then my schedule would be all messed up unless I thought I could be able to sleep an entire 48 hours, so I decided to start breakfast. I went into the kitchen and just like the rest of the hotel it was huge. All stainless steel appliances, big granite counter tops, a huge island in the center and for a while I just stood there staring. Then I remembered what I came in here to do and walked over to the fridge to see what we had that I could throw together. But the truth was I could make anything because the fridge was stalked so full of stuff that you couldn't see to the back.

So I decided to make a full breakfast, but I was going to need some help. I knew Adrian was tired but frankly I didn't care "ADRIAN!" I said in a sing-song voice "What is it now!" he said really irritated. "You're going to help me make breakfast, and if you don't I won't tell you where the blood bags are." Well that got him up and he was in the kitchen in a flash.

I opened the fridge again and reached into the bottom drawer and pulled one out for him and threw it at him. He caught it effortlessly "When you're done cut up all of the fruit that you can find in there and put it in a big bowl." I told him as I was doing everything else for breakfast.

About an hour, and change of clothes later—Adrian and I had a flour fight, the kitchen lost—the dining room table was filled with a huge fruit salad, French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and a big thermos with coffee. When I said a full breakfast I meant it. "BREAKFASTS READY!" I yelled and Adrian flinched. "A little warning would be nice." He said "Now what would have been the fun in that?" I said. Within 30 seconds everyone was out and sitting at the table. "Well I'm glad I made so much, no fooling around once you heard the words 'breakfasts ready'" I snuck a glance at Rob and Niki who both had a slight blush creeping over their face which would have been undetectable unless you were looking for it, and I smiled to my own witty pun, Adrian just shook his head at me.

Forty minutes later and ever plate might as well have been licked clean with how little food was left. Everyone was laying back in their chair with their hands on their stomachs no doubt wishing that they hadn't eaten so much. Everyone got up to do the dishes except for me and Adrian who high fived and went over to sit on the couch to watch TV. "Come on Rose, help us do the dishes." Christian wined. "COOKS DON'T CLEAN!" I yelled back and he just grunted and kept cleaning.

I turned on the news and they were talking about a freak tornado that went through Disney World only hitting Animal Kingdom, killing 95 people and uprooting all of the roller coasters. It was amazing the things that people would believe just so that they didn't have to believe in the super natural. They way they would believe animal attacks had drained a body dry when there was no blood found at the scene.

I flicked the channel because I just couldn't stand to remember what happened yesterday. When the dishes were put away everyone slowly started coming out of the kitchen, Klaus and Wendy being last, and they sat down in the living room. "So what's the plan Rose" Rob asked. I was surprised that he of all people would ask what was going on, he usually just went along with whatever anyone told him to do. "Well we were going to stay here and practice to go up against Elijah, but since we already killed him we can either just stay here and practice or leave and just wing it, because it's not like out plans don't just go to hell once we get there anyway, and someone always gets hurt so it doesn't really matter to me, because I'm just done making decisions!" I'm not going to have any death, or any more near death on my hands, it's someone else's turn to make the tough decisions because I'm done!" I screamed and walked to my room and slammed the door and collapsed on my bed.

Dimitri came in a couple of minutes later and I felt the bed sag where he sat down. "Rosa" he said his voice soft and comforting, filled with sadness and regret, he stroked my hair with his hands. "No one should have to make the decisions that you do, I can't even begin to imagine how hard this is, because you're not most guardians that only have to order around acquaintances, or co workers, these are your friend's lives that you're risking, but I can assure you one thing Rose, if you stop taking charge now all of them will die and I know that's not what you want. All the work that you've risked everything for will be for nothing. Rose, you can cry, you can rest, you can scream at the top of your lungs, but you cannot give up, no that is one thing I will not let you do because you are stronger than this, I will stand by your side, and I will back up every decision you make 100% because you are strong, and beautiful, and brilliant, and nothing will stop you because you know deep down that you will hate yourself for it, and that would tear me up inside. Come out when you're ready, I love you Rosa." He said and bent down, gave me a kiss on the forehead and then left, and I heard the door close softly and knew I was alone.

I just sat there and thought about what Dimitri said, I didn't know that he had believed in me that much, or believed that I meant that much to everyone else, and after a few more minutes of silent crying I got up, straightened my clothes, brushed my hair, put on makeup to hide the tear streaks and walked out the door with my head held high.

"Okay, we are going to stay here and practice for four days and, Adrian you are going to stay with us from now to the end, we saw today how important it is to have two spirit users. You and Lissa will collaborate and try to figure out new ways to use Spirit, I'm not sure yet if I'm going to let you go up against the next one, we will see how good you are after we leave here. We are not going to be caught off guard again, Klaus where are you planning on putting all of the originals?" I asked him "I'm going to put them in the family tomb, we can go there next if you want." He replied "Yes, that is going to be where we go next, we will go there in four days and treat it as an attack, for all we know Elijah isn't the only one that knows we have killed the other originals and someone might be there waiting for us to put the bodies there. So four days practice, then we will head out, and Adrian when Dimitri said pack a weeks worth of clothes he didn't mean a weeks worth of suits, we are going to have to go shopping for you." I told him

"Shit, Rose, are you sure you want me here?" he asked. "Adrian, you were the one complaining that you were sick of being stuck at home babysitting, so now you are going to have to get your hands dirty." I told him, and he just nodded in defeat.

It was pitch black out now and I really wanted to go to bed, I really didn't care if my sleep schedule got messed up. I looked at Dimitri and his expression was full of pride, and I had a flashback of when he was my mentor. Even though we were no equals he still gave me his zen life lessons, and I still needed them.

I caught ahold of his gaze and nodded my head toward the bedroom. He shook his head with a little smile, and although that wasn't what I was thinking of doing in there I liked his idea much better than mine.

He got up took my hand and pulled me into our room. Everyone was busy talking so no one noticed, accept Klaus. I offered him a little smile and put my finger over my lips as I let Dimitri drag me through the door.

I shut the door with my foot and put my arms around his neck, I looked him in the eyes and said "thank you" "For what?" he asked "You know for what, for your little pep talk keeping me from letting all of my friends die." I said with a smile. "I thought you didn't like my zen life lessons?" he asked "Well it's kind of like how when you told me you don't like being called Comrade. You only like it when I do it." I said as I stood on my tippy toes to give him a kiss.

First it was just a tease, our lips barely touching, and then it was so sweet and soft. His lips were so warm, and they fit perfectly within mine. Then the kiss got more heated, and he pulled me closer to him and pushed me up against the wall. If he wasn't there for support I could tell you right now I would have been on the floor. He pulled away and looked at me "God, you're beautiful" he said "I can't believe your all mine." "Well I am, and i wouldnt have it any otherr way." I told him. I pulled his lips back down to mine and the kisses started again.

He walked me over to the bed and I pulled him down with me. I put my hands under his shirt and ran my fingers over his perfectly toned muscles and I felt him shiver. I smiled against his lips, happy that I still had that affect on him, as I slid my hands down his back and to the hem of his shirt. I took it in my hands and pulled it up over his head, and after that the words sweet and soft were lost for the night.

I woke up still in Dimitri's arms and he looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. I ran my fingers through his hair and he moaned." I love you Rosa." He told me as he opened his eyes. No matter how many times he said it I still got butterflies in my stomach every time."I know, I mean did you forget last night already?" I asked with a smirk "I love you too." I told him. I gave him a quick kiss and then grudgingly tried to get up. I say tried because as soon as I tried he pulled me back on top of him with my little scream of surprise.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked with a pout "Going to take a shower" I said "Ooooh, sounds like fun" he replied as he started to get up "Alone, or else I will never come out." I said and the pout returned. I smiled and kissed him again and I knew that if I didn't get up now I never would so I pulled away got out of bed and went to take my shower.

It was one of the quickest showers of my life and I was in and out before the water even got completely warm. I went out into the room, put on my workout clothes, my running shoes, and put my hair up. I told Dimitri I was going for a run and asked if he wanted to join, of course he said yes and he went in to take a shower too. I went out to the kitchen and grabbed a breakfast bar and a bottle of water for me and Dimitri. When he came out he looked ready, I threw the bottle of water at him and he caught it without a problem. We were just about to walk out the door when I remembered my stake. I ran into the room and was back before Dimitri even took a step. "Come on you could have done it faster the that" he teased "Oh really, you wanna race?" I asked and like that it was on.


	14. Chapter 14

Okay so i just have to say a couple of things, first, i'm really sorry at how short it is, i'm just really tired and want to go to bed, and if i didn't update now then it probably wouldn't be till next weekend. Second, i'm also sorry how there hasn't been a battle scene in a while, because if that is what you were reading the story for then you are probably pretty disappointed, but i promise that there will be one soon i just thought that it needed some Rose and Dimitri fluff, and i also thought that Rose was kind of being to unemotional and thats why i added her whole breakdown a couple of chapters ago. Third, sorry for how long this author note is, i know i hate reading these things when i'm reading a fan fic, so ON WITH THE STORY!

Chapter 14… Oh yeah, bring your credit card

We got down to the street and it was about an hour till sunset. I looked at Dimitri and he looked at me and we both started running. We were running so fast that everything was just a blur and neither of us was going our fastest, but we were getting faster, both trying to one-up the other. We had been running for about half an hour when I stopped dead in my tracks. Dimitri stopped shortly after me and looked back. "What?" he asked, he turned behind him and saw that the sun was still up and looked at me questioningly. "The beach." I said "Dimitri we ran from Disney to…" I looked around seeing if I could find a sign, and when I finally did I said "We ran from Disney World to Clearwater in like half an hour, it's at least a two hour car drive." He looked behind them at the beach and then looked back at me a smile on his lips "I guess we did." He told me, I was still just too shocked to say anything.

I looked out over the beach and saw how beautiful the sunset was. The way it was reflecting off or the water and turning the skies the most beautifully brilliant shades of pink and orange that you have ever seen. I walked up to where Dimitri stood, took his hand, and kept walking out to the sand, never taking my eyes off of the scene in front of me.

I quickly bent down and took off my shoes so I could feel the sand. We got to there and it was amazing, I mean I had been to beaches before, but nothing like this. Usually the sand was just a bunch of broken up shells but this, this was amazing, it was baby soft and as your feet sunk in it squished between your toes and it felt so good.

I sat down and despite being pulled Dimitri landed gracefully next to me. I leaned up against his chest and we just sat there starring at the sight that some people will never get to see. I was thinking how no one, not even us will see this exact same sunset ever again, and how amazing it was that every time it was going to be different. I thought about how amazing it was that nature could do that, kind of like how no snowflake was ever the same as the next, no sunset was never the same as the next, and after the sun went down this scene would be lost forever only remembered by the people right here, right now watching it, and it really made me think about how precious life was and how you couldn't take it for granted. "What's wrong? You have your serious face on." Dimitri asked. "Just thinking." I said sighing as I leaned back into him.

It was still kind of light even after the sun went down, but when I turned around it was pitch black. "Dimitri, I think we should head back, we didn't leave a note, and I don't want them to go all search party on us." He laughed and helped me up and we started to run back to Orlando. About 15 minutes in I started feeling nauseous. I knew we weren't close enough for it to be Klaus and Niki so I said Dimitri's name and stopped. He looked at me, and when he saw me take out my stake he immediately turned serious and did the same. Within seconds we were surrounded by about 10 Strigoi. Now any normal guardian might as well just give up then and there, but we weren't regular guardians.

"Well hello my little dhampirs, looks like you're in quite a predicament." The—what I guessed was the—head Strigoi said, I just laughed, this seemed to make him even more mad. "The only predicament we are in is that I'm not going to know your name before I kill you." I said, and now it was his turn to laugh. "There are only ten of you" I said in my best duh voice "and only two of you." He said trying to mimick my tone but failing miserably. He laughed again and I turned to Dimitri, but without taking my eyes off of no name "Leave him to me, he's a dick." I told him.

Dimitri just nodded and smiled and when the Strigoi thought I wasn't looking he tried to sneak up on me, but truth was, I was looking. I sent Dimitri one last look saying I loved him and in one smooth motion spun around and drove my stake through his heart, he was so surprised he didn't even have time to scream. Then all of the Strigoi moved at once.

Still compared to our usual 100 to 1 odds, this was nothing. The Strigoi were definitely surprised that we could move faster than them, and so that gave us another advantage. Within seconds Dimitri and I and staked four more Strigoi and now there were only five left.

Just like Dimitri said he would he left no name for me. He wasn't in the fight though, he was just standing by watching his small group of Strigoi die one by one. We finished staking the other Strigoi and the entire "battle" was over in less than a minute. I stepped over the other Strigoi bodies and walked towards no name. "Don't even think about running, I'm faster than you, and frankly, I'm also stronger than you. I just have one question what's your name?" I asked still walking towards him. "Go to hell" he said "Oh how lovely, I'm Rose." I said right as I drove my stake through his heart.

I took out my phone immediately and dialed the number that I had been using all too often lately. "Hey Sydney it's Rose." I said "Oh my God Rose, thank you so much, I don't know what would have happened if you weren't there, I don't _want _to know what would have happened if you weren't there, are you okay, I mean no major injuries, one of the alchemists said that you had been carrying two bodies and that Klaus was there, how the hell is Klaus there, he's dead, oh my God Rose is Klaus with you, are you okay?" She said it all in one breath and I'm surprised she didn't pass out. She took in a really big breath about to bombard me with more questions but I cut her off "Sydney I'm fine, Lissa was hurt, but she's all better now, and yes Klaus is with me and very much alive, well undead, but not dead undead, whatever, I just had to tell you that there are ten Strigoi bodies in, um…" I looked around for the second time that night looking for a sigh, and found a building "16579 Meridian Lane Spring Hill Florida." I told her and she sighed "Rose, if I got paid per body, I would be a millionaire because of you." She laughed and I just laughed along with her "So you'll handle it?" I asked "Yeah, we have so many alchemists down there right now I'll just send one over, you don't have to wait." "Thanks Syd, so I guess you can just start my tallying of owing you again." And then we said our goodbyes and I hung up.

I turned to Dimitri, "She said we don't have to stay, and we should probably get back, I really want a shower." I told him. So we ran back but it took a little longer because we were actually pretty tired now.

We got up to the apartment and although it was pretty late in the morning the only one awake was Klaus and he was sitting on the couch. "Hey" I said as I walked in. "Hello, how was your run?" he asked "How did you know we went for a run?" I asked him "So you didn't go for a run?" he asked taking in my sweaty clothes. "Whatever, well yeah, our run was quite eventful, we ran into some Strigoi, and their leaders name was Go To Hell, which I thought was quite a good name for a Strigoi." I told him with a smirk on my face, totally playing down the fact that Dimitri and I actually could have died on our run.

He didn't find it nearly as funny as I had, because before I could blink he was up and standing in front of me "Are you oaky, how many where there, did they have anything to do with the originals?" he asked all in a rush "God, you're almost as bad as Sydney, I'm fine, there were ten, and no. Now if you wouldn't mind moving I'm going to go take a shower." I told him pushing him away. I grabbed Dimitri's had and we went to go take a shower.

When we got out and dressed we left our room and everyone was now up. It wasn't surprising considering we had been there just under an hour, but hey, we could have died. I took a look around and everyone was in there workout clothes accept Adrian who was in dress pants and a dress shirt. "Okay Adrian, we are going shopping now, I'm going to go change, and Klaus will you come with us in case we run into anyone again." I said hoping that Lissa wouldn't jump to the conclusion that we had already run into Strigoi. Klaus nodded his head and I went into my room to put on some jeans and a cute top.

"Oh yeah and Adrian bring your credit card, we might have to pick up a few more things" I said with a smirk.

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><p>PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! i havent heard from you guys in a while, not sure who is still reading!<p> 


	15. Chapter 15

Okay so you all probably hat me now because i haven't updated in WEEKS but i am so sorry! Things just got away from me, and i was having writers block and it was terrible. So here it is, the next battle :D

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><p>Chapter 15… Just do it<p>

We went shopping and got Adrian clothes he can actually move in. We went to Sams so I went in the back room and picked up more stakes considering every time we killed an original we had to leave it in their chest. We picked up more food and I got a duffle bag that I filled with first aid things because of all of the complications we have had recently.

Not only were the Moroi doing their magic, but I decided that Dimitri, Eddie, Niki, Klaus, and I would teach them all how to fight. Obviously they wouldn't be as good as us, considering we had been learning for years, but at least they could learn how to throw a punch without hurting themselves and how to effectively block and dodge hits.

By the time the four days were up we had taught the Moroi the basics of fighting and gave them each a stake to defend themselves just in case. We packed up our things and headed out to Adrian's plane. "So Klaus, where is your family's tomb?" I asked, he looked at me like I was dumb. "What?" I asked him.

"Rose… we are the original family." I looked at him to continue, he just sighed and then went on. "Vampirism was originated in England, the terms are Latin, where do you think the tomb is?" He asked. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart one." He told me and I just blushed from embarrassment "I guess that would make sense." I said walking onto the plane.

We sat down and Klaus continued talking to me. "We probably won't need the plane anymore, the oldest ones like to stay close to home, they should all be in England." I nodded "So who do we have left?" I asked "Well after the tomb we will go see Anna, she's best at fire, then we have Joseph, he's spirit, and finally Vladimir, who's best at, well, everything." Klaus told me, and despite my best efforts I paled. We still has so much to do, and it was only going to get harder.

"Klaus?" I wondered, he looked at me motioning for me to continue, "Do you really think we can win?" I asked. Any joking that might have been going on between us before instantly vanished from his features. "We have to" he said "We're their only chance." I didn't need to ask to know that "their" meant the humans, but he was right we had to win, or die trying.

I got up and walked away from Klaus and over to Dimitri, I sat down, held his hand and quickly fell asleep. When I woke up we were landing and I could just feel the anxiety that was filling the plane. They were worried, all of them, and honestly, I was too.

I was the first one up and out of my seat, and everyone besides Dimitri and Klaus seemed frozen in place. Eventually we all got out of the plane grabbed the bodies and our luggage and got into the cars that were waiting for us. I finally trusted Klaus enough to let him drive so I put him in the front car and we all just followed him to a place where only he knew. We were somewhere in England was all that I knew. It was snowing and we were taking back roads through tons of snow covered hills. It was gorgeous, a different kind of beautiful then Florida. Here it seemed like we were the only people that existed.

The car ride was at least an hour long and I kept wondering why the plane couldn't drop us off closer to our destination. We turned off the road and the road we went on to, I'm not sure if you could even call it that. It was more like it used to be a road. It wasn't like the ones you are used to now with asphalt, it wasn't even dirt and shell, it was brick, well cracked brick, with weeds growing up in between every one of them.

Klaus stopped the car and got out, but I didn't see a tomb anywhere around, or even any signs of a tomb. I looked at Klaus questioningly "We are going to have to walk the rest of the way, the cars won't be able to get through." This time we got the bodies out but left our bags.

Again, we were walking for about an hour before I started to see that we were close. I could tell that we were close because I stated seeing ruins. There were outlines of houses, and pillars that now only stuck up a few feet from the ground, all looking like the road that we drove on to get here, weeds and plants growing up between every crack. But despite all of that you could tell it was beautiful. I could just feel all of the spirits of the people that lived here.

I hadn't done this in a long time, and I almost forgot that I could, but I let down my barriers and what happened next was amazing. All of the houses that were now only ruins were rebuilt, not literally, but I could still see what they looked like, and life went on. There were children playing out in the yards, there were horse and buggies riding on the very path we were standing on. There was laughing and talking, and if I really concentrated I could smell some type of pie, and some type of stew. The ghosts all seemed to just be going on with their lives. I stopped and looked ahead, Klaus was the only one that had seen the ghosts, and he looked sad. "What happened here?" I asked him. He looked at me realizing for the first time that I saw the ghosts too, and after another second he realized that I was the one that made them appear. "Make them go away." He told me quietly. I just looked around but didn't do anything. "MAKE THEM GO AWAY!" He screamed at me, all of the sudden right in front of me and holding my up off the ground by my shirt.

I scrambled to put my wards back up and within seconds all of my wards were back up, the ghosts were gone. The smells, the laughter, the houses, it was back to ruins, but Klaus didn't put me down, he just held me there looking at me. "Put me down." I hissed. He seemed to come out of his little day dream and set me down. "What happened?" I asked again, he just turned and walked away and if I didn't have my dhampir hearing I wouldn't have been able to hear him say "Vladimir." Dimitri walked back beside me and asked "What was that about?" "I'm not sure." I said honestly.

After about ten more minutes of awkward silence and walking we came to an opening in the ground and Klaus led us down. If it had been a couple of months ago, I never would have let Klaus lead me anywhere, but a lot had changed in a couple of months.

I looked back at Christian "Do you think you could light us up?" I asked, he looked around and seconds later the dark cavern was illuminated by light that came from torches hung on the walls. It wasn't what I expected, what I expected was walking down a long corridor with many pathways that ended up being like a maze that none of us would have been able to navigate without Klaus. But instead we walked down a corridor no more than five feet long and at the end it opened to a room. It was huge!

It had to be the size of an entire house, but it was only one room. There were seven big stone coffins and I immediately walked over to open one of the lids. "Eddie go keep a look out at the bottom of the stairs, we don't want any unexpected guests." I told him as I tried to push the lid off the coffin, only it didn't move. I looked over at Klaus and he just smiled "Why isn't it working?" I asked him. He walked over and pushed it over without a problem "You might be as fast as me, but you will never be as strong as me." I just hmphed and walked away "Well if you want to do it by yourself then fine." I said walking over to get Eddie and as soon as I did I heard him say "Rose we ha—" but he was cut off. All the torches went out and we were surrounded by complete darkness except for the light coming by where the door was. I ran over just in time to see who I guessed was Anna drop Eddies limp body to the ground.

She was wearing all skin tight black leather with shiny red heels to match her shiny red fingernails and her flaming red hair. But not just the color, it was actually on fire, and flowing from a breeze that wasn't there. She was also the only original that I saw that didn't try to hide her Strigoi side. She accentuated her pale skin with the black, and kept her eyes that ruby red. But the thing that really caught my eye was the blood surrounding her mouth, Eddie's blood.

Mia was already crying hysterically at seeing Eddie lying lifeless on the cold floor of the tomb, and my heart broke for her. I shot daggers at Anna, and she just stared at me. "You guys killed my brothers and sisters." She told us "You've killed thousands of peoples brothers and sisters." I shot back at her and she just laughed "Touché"

It was then that I noticed she only had two other Strigoi behind her, both dressed in black suits. Either that was all she had or there were more standing outside, but I discarded the second idea quickly seeing as how the sun was still outside. Mia had stopped crying now and when I looked back at her I noticed her giving Anna a look that I thought she only reserved for me and Lissa when we first met.

Anna walked down the rest of the stairs her red heels clicking on each step. She casually stepped over Eddies body and into the main room "So who wants to die next?" She asked "Well I'm not sure you want to, but I know that the next person to die is going to be you or one of your little bodyguards." Mia shot back at her. Anna seemed to just notice her, which was bad, I wish Mia would have just kept her mouth shut and gone un noticed, but that wasn't the attitude that any of us had, not anymore. "Hmm, I guess that means you." Anna said casually. And if I wasn't dhapmir I wouldn't have noticed, but she made a quick little jerk with one of her fingers and I was across the room and in front of Mia a heartbeat sooner than one of Anna's guards, and I used the momentum that he already had from running to drive my stake through his heart.

Anna screamed and I could almost make out the name John, but it just was non understandable noise. It finally stopped and my ears were still ringing, but hey, I had to be Rose Hathaway. "You damn originals, never doing your own dirty work." I tsked and turned around to see if Mia was okay. "He was my best Strigoi you little bitch." Anna spat and I turned around just in time for me to come in contact with a fist to the face. "I spit out blood I could feel building in my throat. Did that make you feel better, feel accomplished now?" I asked her "I won't feel accomplished until you're dead you little brat!" she said "ditto" and then she threw another punch, but this one I caught. And then there was no more talking.

I was kicking and dodging and I could tell that I was losing. It was because the last four days we had been focusing on the Moroi. We were teaching them to fight, and in doing so I didn't get to practice with anyone at my skill level, and I had become weaker, and it showed. Because fighting wasn't like riding a bike, no every day you didn't practice you lost things, your speed, your agility, something. "Mia" I managed to get out "water" I told her. I risked a look around and noticed Dimitri fighting the other Strigoi, Klaus was opening the tombs and putting in the other originals. What the hell, there is a time and place to do that, and even though this was the place, it definitely not the time, but I didn't have enough energy to correct him. Christian was helping Dimitri, because he knew he had no chance of going head to head with Anna, and Niki was standing in the corner protecting The other Moroi. "I can't do it!" Mia screamed at me hysterically "there's no water nearby and the air is too dry!" Mia shouted

Shit! Now I had to fight and think, and Anna was gaining more and more ground on me. Shit! I pushed harder and landed a couple of punches and at the same time I had an idea. "Wendy!" I screamed "Air, she can't use fire without air!" I told her "Rose I can't cut off her air without cutting yours off too!" She shouted back at me. And again my word of the day, shit. "It doesn't matter! Just do it!" I told her.

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><p>Sooooooo, is Eddie gonna live! Whats going to happen when Rose cant breathe? Why did Klaus blow up when he was the ghosts? Why is Klaus putting away the bodies when he could be fighting off Strigoi? Tell me what you think the answers are in reviews!<p>

Really sorry it's so short, but tell me what you think!


	16. Chapter 16

So i was contemplating whether or not i should build suspense by making you guys wait for this chapter, but i had been so bad about how long it took me to get the last chapter out that i decided i should give it to you now to try and make it up. So here it is!

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><p>Chapter 16… Awkward<p>

"_Mia" I managed to get out "water" I told her. I risked a look around and noticed Dimitri fighting the other Strigoi, Klaus was opening the tombs and putting in the other originals. What the hell, there is a time and place to do that, and even though this was the place, it definitely not the time, but I didn't have enough energy to correct him. Christian was helping Dimitri, because he knew he had no chance of going head to head with Anna, and Niki was standing in the corner protecting The other Moroi. "I can't do it!" Mia screamed at me hysterically "there's no water nearby and the air is too dry!" Mia shouted_

_Shit! Now I had to fight and think, and Anna was gaining more and more ground on me. Shit! I pushed harder and landed a couple of punches and at the same time I had an idea. "Wendy!" I screamed "Air, she can't use fire without air!" I told her "Rose I can't cut off her air without cutting yours off too!" She shouted back at me. And again my word of the day, shit. "It doesn't matter! Just do it!" I told her._

And soon enough it was getting hard to breath. I took bigger and bigger gulps of air, but no matter what I did I couldn't get enough oxygen. My lungs were on fire, and black dots were dancing across my field of vision. The only thing that kept me going was that Anna was slowing down too. I knew Strigoi didn't have to breathe, but Fire was her element, it was her life, and she couldn't use it without oxygen.

If Klaus wasn't being such an idiot and putting bodies in the tomb he could come over here and fight Anna, because he didn't have to breath. Then it hit me, Niki, she was a Strigoi. "Niki" I gasped using my last breath of air. She ran over right as I collapsed on the ground and began fighting Anna. Dimitri heard my cry and I saw in slow motion as he looked over at me, and the Strigoi he was fighting hit him in the gut and he flew across the room.

I crawled away and took in a breath of good sweet oxygen that made my lungs burn. I kept gasping, trying to catch my breath and I ran over to Dimitri just as the other Strigoi was getting there. I stood up in front of Dimitri who was lying broken on the floor and I looked him right in the eye. "You asshole!" I screamed as I drove my stake into his heart. "Lissa!" I cried she came rushing over and within seconds Dimitri was healed. I looked over and saw that Niki was still fighting Anna, but Anna was definitely getting weaker, and Niki if anything was getting stronger.

So I took the chance to run over to Eddie, I felt for his pulse and almost cried out when I felt one, a weak one, but it was still there. "Lissa, heal him, he's alive." I said loud enough, hoping that Mia would hear it too.

Lissa ran over to Eddie and she began healing him too, I could feel the darkness and quickly took it away from her. Eddie began to move and again I was overwhelmed with joy, I had already lost Mason, I wasn't going to lose Eddie too. A couple of seconds later he sat up and then I helped him to his feet.

Lissa rolled back on her heels, obviously exhausted and so I helped her up too. I looked over at Niki and just at that moment she staked Anna. She let out a scream before she collapsed to the ground. Finally I felt safe, I looked around the room and both Wendy and Lissa looked like they were about ready to pass out, and Christian just looked tired, Mia ran over and leaped into Eddies arms and I don't know what happened next because I wanted to give them their privacy. I looked over to Rob who was now making his way over to Niki, who was still standing over Anna's body looking down at it with disgust. Then I looked over in the corner and saw Adrian walking towards me with a scowl "Why the hell did you bring me if you just made me stand in the corner being body guarded?" he asked. "Well these weren't normal circumstances, and I didn't even want you to come this time, but I wasn't just going to leave you sitting in the car all by yourself, now was I?" I shot back at him, knowing that the darkness was getting to me, and pushing it back deep down. He just shook his head and went over to the entrance of the tomb and walked up the stairs.

Next I walked over to Klaus sporting what I guessed looked like the same scowl that Adrian had been wearing moments ago. "What the hell?" I asked "You're going to have to elaborate just a little." He told me not even looking up from what he was doing. "What the hell could be so important with these bodies that you couldn't have stopped to fight on the mission that you have me and my friends risking their lives for!" I scolded "What, you think there not my friends too?" he asked "That's not the point, I asked what was so damn important." "What was so important, is that whoever puts the bodies in the coffins is the only one who can take them out, it's an insurance policy." He shot back "I wasn't sure if you were going to be able to fight her off, and if you couldn't, I didn't want her to undo all of the work that we had already done." That shut me up, but only for a second. "First of all, if you would have helped we wouldn't have had a problem beating her, and second, how did they get out from last time you killed them?" I asked "It's something new that I did, I learned from my mistakes, it's like the wards, and whatever original is inside them they can control who comes in and out, same thing here, I was in them last, so I can control who can go in them next." He told me. "This isn't over I still have to talk to you." I told him. "I have no doubt you do." He said going back to putting the bodies in the coffins.

I walked over to Dimitri and just buried my head in his chest. I felt his strong arms encircle my waist and pull me closer. "I'm so proud of you." He said, I looked up into his eyes and could tell he was telling the truth. "Dimitri, you almost died today, you almost died because of me." I told him, tears threatening to pour down my face. "I don't know what I would do without you, I love you so much." I told him "I love you to Roza, I really do." He told me kissing my forehead. I pulled away and stood up on my tippy toes until I met his lips.

I savored every kiss with Dimitri knowing that any one of them may be our last. I pulled back and looked into his eyes one last time before turning away. "Okay, lets go, we have a long walk back to the cars and I don't want to stay around to see if Anna had any back up Strigoi ready to come out when the sun set. I said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

The walk back was a tense silence, at least for me, for everyone else it was probably just silence. We got back to the cars and were getting ready to make a plan. "So I'm guessing there aren't any hotels nearby." I said looking to Klaus for confirmation. "We are at least two hours from the closest town, and I doubt that a town that small would even have a hotel." He said "Okay, so it looks like we will be camping" I said going in to the trunks of one of the cars and grabbed the all too familiar camping equipment.

"Okay Mia, Christian, Wendy, Rob, I need you to put up the wards, Adrian, Lissa, Niki, I need you to make some dinner, Dimitri, Eddie, can you put up the tents, I need to talk to Klaus for a moment. But everyone, get some blood first." I told them as I looked at Klaus and motioned to my right.

He walked over and I followed, he stopped but I kept going. "We're far enough away, they won't hear us." He said, "They might not hear you, but they will definitely hear me." I told him without even looking back. He followed and after another couple of minutes I stopped.

"So what happened back there?" I asked "I told you, the wards." He said "I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the ghosts." I told him and his face paled. "Klaus I need to know, no one else does but I do." I pleaded "He killed them…" he paused "Vladimir killed them. It was the only place that all of us lived, it was where we were born, and once Vladimir realized what he was he killed all of them." He told me "Well, okay I get it, but why did it bother you so much?" I questioned "Because I loved her, and he killed her!" he screamed. "Woah woah, you loved who, who did he kill?" "My fiancé, she was the first person that I ever loved." He said "So that's what this is about, revenge. I can't do this, I won't do this." I told him and he looked at me confused "You aren't doing this for the right reasons, you are doing this for revenge, you are going to get all of us killed." I said, my voice becoming a yell by the end. "No one is going to get killed." He assured "Yes they are, don't you see! What are you going to do if we get to Vladimir, we're just about to kill him and he says she's alive! That he turned her into a Strigoi and only he knows where she is! You can't be trusted! You have no morals tying you to this mission! IT'S REVENGE! And I'm not going to risk my team for some vendetta that you have against your brother!" I finished "If he told me that I would kill him." He said flatly. "There is NOTHING that he can say that will make me change my mind, I will kill him the first chance I get! You don't believe me? That's okay, you didn't trust me when you started this, you didn't trust Niki either, but where would you be now if you still didn't trust us? Dead! And don't think for a second that that isn't true!"

"Where would I be now if I didn't trust you! I would be at home, in my bed with my husband, and my biggest worry being what I was going to wear tomorrow! Not which one of my friends is going to die next!" "Just trust me, please, I can't do this without you." He pleaded. "I will not hesitate to kill you, I will cut all of my emotional ties and show no remorse, you will be dead and gone before you can even blink, and I will kill anyone else who gets in my way."

I walked back over to the makeshift campground and could instantly smell something delicious. The tents were already set up and everyone was sitting around the fire getting warm. I sat down next to Dimitri and he handed me a bowl of steaming Chili.

"So sleeping arrangements will be the same" I said "Me and Dimitri, Christian and Lissa, Rob and Niki, Eddie and Mia, and Klaus and Wendy""What the hell I thought this was supposed to be a save the world mission, not match makers in tents." Adrian said. "Oh you're just mad that you're the only on here who hasn't gotten laid since we started this thing." I shot back realizing too late that only I knew about Klaus and Wendy's relationship, and only me and Adrian knew about Niki and Rob's but luckily Adrian replied to quickly for anyone else to but in "And how the hell would you know that? I had lots of free time back at the academy." He accused "Yeah with a bunch of girls under 18, even you wouldn't be that stupid." But I had to laugh as I looked over at Dimitri and realized, he was. "I guess you can sleep in mine and Dimitri's tent." I said trying to change the subject.

"God no, I'll just sleep in the car." He told me, I smiled "Good because that would have been a little awkward, especially for you." I said with a smile.

Within the hour everyone got up and went to bed, my earlier comment insinuating a relationship between Klaus and Wendy and Rob and Niki just put off the side as something I said to make Adrian mad.

I was laying in the tent just staring up at the roof of the tent. I tried to go to sleep but I just couldn't. The events of earlier today kept running through my head, I could almost hear the sound of Dimitri hitting the wall and then the floor. It made me sick to even think about it. I couldn't stop tossing and turning and I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard the silky voice beside me ask what was wrong. "I just can't sleep" I told him "Well do you want to go out and spar? I know that always helps you sleep." He asked.

"Yeah, but you were sleeping, I don't want you to have to get up." I told him. "But I won't really be able to sleep until you do." He countered. "Okay" I said and we got up and put on our work out clothes, and jackets and headed outside.

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><p>Sorry it was kind of short again. Tell me what you think REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!<p> 


	17. Chapter 17

Okay, so I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry that i haven't updated recently, but my internet was out for a week and then i went and read through my story to get some more ideas and i have no idea how you guys can put up with my terrible writing, so i tried harder this time to work on my grammar, and what i really focused on was the dialogue, so tell me is you can see a difference, it's okay i you can't, and i know you're tired of hearing my excuses so on with the story. I made this chapter extra long as an apology, i hope you can forgive me.

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><p>Chapter 17…We're not Guardians<p>

We got outside of the tent and the full moon was high in the sky providing enough light with our enhanced vision to see almost like it was day time. We walked about half a mile away from camp so that no one would hear us.

We came to a clearing and immediately started to circle each other. Dimitri swung out his leg and I effortlessly jumped over it and threw a punch as I landed. He caught the punch and twisted my arm behind me. I used my other arm to elbow him in the gut and he let go. I spun around and we were face to face once again.

I figured it was my turn to attack first so I went for a punch kick combination that was one of the first ones Dimitri taught me and although he didn't recognize it at first soon enough he was able to block everything I threw at him. I saw his weight shift and I knew what he was going to do it before he did it. I countered, and instead of dodging the punch I had enough time to catch it, but then I saw him smile and knew that was exactly what he wanted me to do. Before I let go he used his momentum combined with mine and flipped me over causing me to land on my back with him on top of me.

A couple of strands of his hair had fallen out of his short pony tail and were tickling my cheek. We were both breathing heavy, even though our fight had only lasted about a minute, it was intense. "You know me too well Comrade." I smirked. "My plan wouldn't have worked if you didn't know me just as well." He replied.

I looked into Dimitri's eyes and saw the combination of love and lust that just made me melt. His lips crashed down on mine and I matched his hunger beat for beat. I rolled us over and I was straddling him, my fingers went down to the hem of his shirt and I felt him moan as I spread my fingers out over his abs. "I love you Roza" "I love you too Comrade."

We went back to camp and I slept like a baby.

I woke up the next morning and it looked like everyone else was up. "Why didn't you wake me?" I asked walking over towards Dimitri.  
>"I thought you could use your rest" He gave me a kiss on the cheek as I sat down next to him.<br>"Thanks" I muttered. After I took a look around I noticed that there was still one person sleeping, Adrian, but right as I thought that I heard the glorious sound of Adrian complaining. He slammed the car door so hard I thought it was going to fall off of its hinges. "For luxury cars those things suck ass," he sat down next to me, warming himself by the fire "and they're freezing." Now that I looked at him, he did look a little blue. "Is that bacon I smell?" he asked, his mood doing a complete one eighty from his previous complaints.

We ate breakfast, packed up and were ready to get in the cars by noon. "Okay, before we leave, we need to get back on vampire time, this staying up with the sun, as much as I love it, is really taking a toll on the moroi."  
>"No we don't!" Lissa shouted, I looked at her questioningly so she continued.<br>"Sure it makes us weaker, but it _kills_ the Strigoi, well most of them."  
>"There it is, that's the problem, you're right it does make you weaker, and even at your strongest we only just managed to kill Anna, and the sunlight doesn't kill all of them, only the weak ones that any of us could kill with a stake in seconds." I looked at everyone and they were watching me and Lissa trying to figure out who was going to win.<br>"Fine." Lissa sighed getting in the car "We'll go back to vampire time.

The car ride was really quiet, there was occasional small talk but nothing more, the worst part was though, that it was like that for hours. There was no communication between cars either. "I thought you said all of the rest liked to stay close to home."  
>Klaus laughed "They do all like to stay close to home, this is close to home, England is a big place." I sighed and leaned back in my seat.<p>

When it was close to sunset we got off the interstate and went into a little town looking for a restaurant. We found this cute little diner and decided it would be a good place to stop for dinner. We walked in and they pushed a couple of tables together for us to sit at.

A couple of minutes after we sat down our waitress came over. "Hello, my name is Jackie and I will be your server today, what can I get you guys." She said it drawn out and it took her about thirty seconds to say it all. I looked more closely and I saw that her pupils were dilated too, but I ordered anyway, and so did everyone else. When she left I looked to Klaus, "I think our waitress is high." He shook his head.  
>"She had a scarf on." I was trying to think what having a scarf on would do, I mean it was winter, even I had a scarf on, but then it hit me.<br>"You think she's been bitted?" He nodded.  
>"They all have." I looked around noticing for the first time that all of the wait staff had something around their necks, whether it was a scarf, turtleneck, or, trying to fit the diner theme, that kind of scarf people wore in the 60's that was more for fashion then warmth.<p>

"I take it they don't get too many visitors here, at least living visitors." I looked outside and the sun had completely set. "We better get out before we get any unwelcome guests." Lissa gasped.  
>"Rose! How could you say that? You would really just leave these poor innocent people in the hands of those monsters." I sighed and looked around, Lissa was kind of starting to get on my nerves, but she was right, this time, I couldn't just leave them here.<br>"Fine, everyone find somewhere to hide, and don't come out till my signal, even if you want to." They all nodded and I turned back and went into the kitchen.  
>"Klaus, Lissa, Adrian! I need you to compel the wait staff, we were never here!"<p>

I heard them muttering and then the dazed expression that was already on all of the waiters faces got even more intense and then it was gone. We were all lying in wait and it felt like hours before here was any sign of movement, but i knew it was really only about twenty minutes. One strigoi walked in and I heard him call our waitress's name and she came strolling out of the kitchen wiping her hands on her apron. "Hello love" as she reached up to give him a kiss. He looked annoyed but kissed her back anyway. "The usual?" he nodded and followed her into the back. I saw Lissa look at me expectantly but I just shook my head and she crouched back down obviously disappointed.

He came out a couple of minutes later and was getting ready to leave. Lissa looked at me again, and again I shook my head. He left and when he was safely out of earshot Lissa jumped out from behind one of the tables and yelled "why did you just let him go, did you see the same thing I did?"  
>"yes Lissa, I saw the exact same thing you did, in fact I saw worse because I have a view of the back room. I also know that the girl is fine and that that one strigoi could not be biting all of these people, he was probably just a scout, and if he didn't come back the rest of them probably wouldn't show up." Klaus nodded at me "she's right. There's more, I can feel them" Lissa shot me daggers and the crouched back down in her hiding spot.<p>

A couple of minutes later and the same strigoi walked in, this time followed by about twenty others that ended up almost filling the small diner. I was surprised none of us had been found but as soon as I thought that I saw. The one that was obviously the oldest and probably the leader look around smelling the air like he had picked up a scent.

"There is something off today, I can smell it, did anyone come in here today?" turning his head again to our waitress, poor girl, she didn't know how much danger she was in right now. She looked like she was really thinking about it and I was nervous that she would remember, but then again she was compelled by one of the three best in the world so I shouldn't be, right?  
>"No, no one came in here today besides you" he looked at her, studying her "she's been compelled, search the diner" he ordered and within seconds the strigoi were looking around the diner.<p>

I knew our hiding spots weren't good enough to hold up to their scrutiny for long so I decided I should make my appearance and try to distract them long enough for everyone to do what they were taught. "Sorry to crash the party boys, but this is the last time you are going to be using any of these people as human blood bags." all the strigoi were looking at me, and that is exactly what I wanted. My team began blocking off the exits, and the dhampirs were moving the moroi behind them.

"And what do you think you are going to do little girl?" The Strigoi asked.  
>"Well I thought you were supposed to be the smart one. I'm going to kill you."<br>"You do know how to count don't you. There are many more of us then there are of you."  
>"Twenty two to be exact, but who's counting."<br>"Hey! How come you get to have all of the fun!" Lissa called from over by the door. The strigois face changed for a second and then it was just back to neutral.  
>"So you brought a little back up, and what's this? Are those Strigoi! How the hell did you get them to fight for you. It takes all of my power to keep these goons in line and you're just a dhampir." the way he said it he seemed almost hesitant, like he was going to get in trouble for saying he was in charge.<br>"Oh, but I'm so much more." I said and in that instant I ran for the strigoi closest to me, and to the untrained eye it would seem almost simultaneously, Dimitri, Klaus, Niki, and Eddie all followed suit, while Christian set them on fire. The other moroi were using their magic but with exception to Mia you couldn't see it.

Within seconds we were down to about five, and like always the leader always seems to escape our evil clutches till last. "It's the same thing with every one of you isn't it, letting the weaklings doing the fighting while you just stand back and watch them die. You're such a coward" I said in a tone of disgust as I drove my stake through his heart.

I looked around and all of the other strigoi were dead or had left and I did a quick injury check on my team, but there was no blood anywhere so I assumed no one was in immediate danger. "Okay Adrian, Lissa, you two get working on healing the wait staff and I'll call Sydney." I walked out of the restaurant dialing the number I knew by heart "Hey Sydney, guesssss whoooooo!"  
>"What do you want rose?"<br>"Well you don't seem too happy to hear from me. But thats besides the point, what I want is to keep our world a secret, and to start piling up my 'I owe you ones' again, OH and I would LOVE the bacon cheese burger and milkshake that o ordered before I realized the diner we were at was being run by strigoi and we had to kill them." I told her.  
>"Rose" I heard her sigh over the phone "is it like impossible for you to stay out of trouble or something?"<br>"yeah, pretty much. Anyway, I'm on a satellite phone so just get the coordinates off of there, because I really have no idea where we are. Well bye syd"  
>" bye rose" I hung up the phone and walked back inside. Lissa and Adrian had finished healing everyone and they all looked really scared. "Can't you compel them to not be scared? And make us the dinner we came for." I added as an afterthought. "Oh yeah, and I called sydney, she said that she'll send someone right over." I told the group and then went to sit down at the table that I first sat in. "they all looked at me like I was crazy, but I was used to it now, so it didn't really bother me, but not having food did. "Well are we going to eat or not, let's get to it." one of the waitresses looked at me and then walked swiftly into the kitchen and a couple others followed. "Well I was meaning for you to compel them, but I guess that the scare tactic works too." I said to lissa. Slowly one by one the wait staff went into the kitchen I guess they felt safer when they are all together.<p>

About fifteen minutes out waitress came out with all of our food. "Thanks" I said through a mouthful of cheeseburger. "No, it should be me thanking you; you have no idea what they did to us, I just can't tell if you are good or bad yet, I mean they way you just came and killed them all, I know I wouldn't have been able to do that. But thank you, and the food is on the house." but suddenly I wasn't hungry anymore, I put my burger down and almost choked swallowing what was already in my mouth.

I got up muttering some lane excuse that I needed some air that any one of them could see right through, but hopefully they could also see that I just wanted to be alone.

I got outside and took in a big breath of freezing night air. I wiped snow off of one spot of the curb and sat down. I looked up at the stars and thought about what Alberta used to tell me. When I asked her how she was able to kill the strigoi knowing that at one point they used to be moroi, or dhampir, or humans she pointed up to the sky and told me that the only reason she could do it was because when they died they were free, and they went up into the heavens to watch over us and to help guide the other lost souls up so that they could be good again. And it was what I needed when I was a little girl, knowing that there was something after death and despite all of the terrible things that strigoi did they were forgiven when they died. But now that I was an adult I seriously doubted if any of that was true, and that what I just did in there, I had killed twenty or so innocent people that were never going to come back and were never going to be forgiven.

I hadn't noticed that i had been crying until I felt the tears fall on my hands. I quickly wiped them away and when I looked back into the sky I tried to imagine what my life would be like if I had stayed at academy. Instead of sitting on the curb in the middle of nowhere I would be sitting on the oh so familiar lawns of the academy, or even in mine and Dimitri's cabin, I wouldn't be thinking about the twenty strigoi I saw die right before my eyes, no I would be thinking about what I was going to teach my students the next day. But one thing would be the same, I would be looking up at the same sky and having the same doubts in my mind about whether or not I would be able to make it through day to day.

And that is when I would go to Alberta, any questions I had for her, like how she got through everything, and how she put up with all of the bull shit moroi politics, she would give me a straight answer, because that's the way she was, she saw me as an equal, not some trouble making kid, because even though I had graduated I was still the trouble maker to everyone, and even though I had been put through more tough situations then half of the guardians I knew it would take a lot more than that to prove to them that I am good at what I do, and that I actually take it seriously. That's one of the things Dimitri saw right away, that I would give my life to protect Lissa and that I took it more serious than anyone.

Dimitri came out and brushed off snow next to me and sat down. He reached over and wiped a lingering tear off of my cheek with his thumb and then kissed the spot where it used to be. "Are you ready to come inside, or do you want to talk?" he reached over and put his arms around me in an attempt to keep me warm. "Dimitri, can I ask you a question?"  
>"Anything"<br>"How do you deal with it? I mean the fact that every strigoi you kill, you are killing something that used to be an actual person with a soul, that was capable of caring, and that you just took away any chance of them ever finding that peace."  
>"Well I wasn't the first to take it away roza, whoever turned them is the one that took away the peace that you are talking about, but I can help them find another type of peace, one where they no longer have to kill to survive, and if they were a good person before they changed that would be what they wanted, they wouldn't want to have to do the terrible things that they did to survive, so even though I can't help them go back to the things they were, I know that's okay, because no one can, so the best I can do is help them move on so that they can go to the heavens and help guide other lost souls into forgiveness." he leaned into me and gave me a kiss.<br>"Did Alberta tell you that last part?" I asked with a smile and I felt him nod behind me "I think I'm ready to go back inside now" I got up and helped Dimitri up and we walked inside hand in hand.

I didn't eat any more but I did talk, which was the next best thing. About an hour later an alchemist showed up and I was disappointed to see that it wasn't Sydney, but really, what were the odds that she would be out in England. His name was Josh and if I didn't have Dimitri I would say that he was really hot, but I did so I will just say that he was cute. Sandy blonde hair, a little longer than unkept, defined cheek bones, bright blue eyes, and that amazing British accent. But still nothing compared to my god's Russian accent.

Klaus hid his appearance, and Niki turned into a dog. The alchemist looked at us and then at all of the bodies. "You guys did all of this?" his tone questioning.  
>"We're just that good." I replied with a smirk.<br>"I bet you are" he leaned closer and I could smell his cologne. Dimitri snaked his arm around my waist and the guy looked annoyed but quickly hid it and backed off to begin his work. "Come on Comrade I was just having fun." I whispered in Dimitri's ear.  
>"Yeah but you having fun can really crush a guy, and we can have fun later." I couldn't tell if it was him making innuendos or if it was him being the teacher and telling me to stop messing around so the alchemist could get his work done and we could leave. But I wasn't going to let it be teacher "I'll take that as an invitation"<p>

I wiggled myself out of his grip and walked over to the rest of the group, Klaus was smiling at me, having heard our entire conversation and I winked at him.

"So what are we going to do now, I mean we have been driving all day but I have no idea where we are going." I looked at Klaus for answer. "This might seem strange, but we are going to a dungeon." he looked at me, just waiting for me to say something. "Really? A dungeon, first a tomb and now a dungeon, I liked the girls in your family better, they were all beaches and rain-forests and pretty things, but we went from a family crypt to a dungeon, why does he stay in a dungeon anyway?"  
>"He specializes in spirit, and with all of the captives and dead people, he has a lot of, ummm, material- I guess-to work with."<br>"He's spirit? What's supposed to be the opposite of spirit?" I looked around the room, fire was the opposite of water, and earth to air, but spirit was all alone.  
>"That's the thing, there is no opposite of spirit, Lissa, and now Adrian, are going to have to go against him head to head, it will be easier now that there are two of them, but they are going to need all of the help they can get from the other moroi. Lissa, have you learned yet how to get power from other living things?" he looked to Lissa and she nodded<br>"That's what I've been teaching Adrian, he's getting the hang of it, but no offense, I'm better."  
>"None taken" Adrian said honestly.<br>"Good" replied Klaus "because you are going to need it, that is how Elijah gets all of his power, and if you don't know how to do that then you will lose I a heartbeat. There is nothing stopping you now from being ad powerful as him, but he has many years of experience on you, and will know how to do things that you didn't even could be done, and he is not above using them on a bunch of kids. There is one thing you do have to know though, you can use life force from living things but there is no way to turn that power against Elijah, you can't just take all of his life force and expect him to die because technically, we are not living, so don't even try because if you do he will feel it, and then he will know that you have that power, a power that only few spirit users posses, and he will take it from you before you even knew what he was doing. Also, you can give power the same way you can take it, so just remember that when we are down there and I think that we could be able to win." Lissa was taking in every word that he was saying and I could see her trying to process it.

The alchemist finished cataloging the deaths and just got rid of the last of the bodies. "So which one of you killed how many?" he looked at us expectantly holding his chart. I turned to Klaus "We were never here." "You got it Rose." I turned and walked back out to the cars as I heard Klaus compelling him to forget that were ever there and that he just found the bodies with no one around.

Everyone else came out of the restaurant a couple seconds later and we got into the cars. It was getting close to sun up so we decided to go to the nearest hotel. We drove around the town for about half an hour and stopped at five different places before we found the single motel that was on the entire area.  
>It wasn't a good motel either, it what pealing peach paint that was probably popular in the 60s, the insides were covered in tacky sea foam blue and pink wallpaper, the smell of smoke thick in the air.<p>

It was crime scene ready. The beds were uncomfortable and I didn't even want to think about the last time the sheets had been washed, but i was too tired to care. I slept on top of the covers, cuddled up to Dimitri for warmth. Lissa and Christian slept on the bed next to us, and the rest of our group slept in the two adjoining rooms on either side of us.

I was asleep within minutes and I didn't wake up until the next morning, and I saw the sun going down. No one else was up, at least in our room, so I left a note saying that I was going to pick up some breakfast.

I drove around town for a while just seeing what there was when I came across a bakery. Actually I couldn't see it yet, but I could smell it, and it smelt delicious. After about another minute of driving I saw the sign that made my mouth water. ~Sally's Bakery~ and in the window it said ~fresh baked goods daily~ I parked on the street due to the fact that there was no parking lot and I walked inside.

I was greeted by the warm smile of who I assumed to be Sally and a wide array of baked goods. There were doughnuts and pastries and tarts and it all just looked so good. I could tell that there was usually more, but since it was getting close to night time there was only a couple left of all of the different things. "I'll take two of everything" she looked shocked and I think she was trying to find if I was actually serious or not, I just stared back at her and she began putting things in boxes.

When she was done I had nine boxes of goodies and a bill that was only thirty dollars. I had no idea how it was possible for her to stay in business so when I gave her two twenties I told her to keep the change. "Thank you! Come back any time" Sally called after me as I strategically balanced all of the boxes and opened the store door. The bell rang signaling my departure and I saw a guy come out of a back room that I had hardly noticed before.

I didn't really think anything of it, it was probably the chef, and so I got into the car and drove back to the hotel driving carefully, as to make sure not to disturb the pastries.

When I got back everyone was up and they almost attacked me when I came in the door. "Oh my god! I'm starving!" Rob cried as I walked in and put the boxes on the table. "Well good, because I got two of everything." I opened the boxes for confirmation and I saw Dimitri shaking his head.  
>"What?" he looked at me,<br>"Why couldn't you just get one of everything?" he stared at me questioningly, obviously not seeing the same logic that I did I guess I would have to explain it to him. "Lots of reasons, one, what of you have something and it's REALLY good and you want another one, or two, what if someone has something and they tell you that it's good and then you want to have it too. Okay so maybe not a lot of reasons, but two." he shook his head. "You're impossible"  
>"But that's why you love me, you like a challenge, and that's why Lissa likes me too, she likes to fix things, come to think of it that's probably why she LOVES sparky, he's got so many damn problems she will be fixing them forever." Christian shot me a death glare, probably because he didn't have anything better to say, and we all dug in and ate our breakfast.<p>

About an hour later we were all packed up and I went down to the main office to pay for our rooms. When I got there I couldn't find the lady that worked at the front desk. I rang the little bell sitting on the counter and about a minute later the lady wobbled out of the back. I looked at her and I could tell instantly what was wrong "shit" I threw a hundred on the counter and hoped that covered the rooms. "It's not just the diner" I said once I got out into the parking lot. Everyone looked at me questioningly "The strigoi they weren't just at the diner, there I this whole town. This morning when I went to the bakery, after I left this guy came out of the back, I thought it was probably just the chef, and the chick that works the front desk was just bitten, I could see it in her eyes, and I could smell it. There was also something off about the way the strigoi said he was in charge last night, he seemed almost hesitant. I think this whole town is overrun with strigoi, the question is do we stay and fight, or do we get the hell away from here as fast as we can and leave these people to fight their own battles." I looked to my group for answers and of course found them in the form of Lissa. "No, that is not the question, the question is how do we beat these sons of bitches." I had hardly ever hear Lissa cuss before, so I knew this was some serious shit, hey I can't say the same for me.

"okay, well we will have to figure that out, I mean we don't really know anything that's going on, we don't know where the strigoi's base is or if going in there guns blazing is the best course of action. I mean it takes guardians weeks to come up with this stuff." "But we're not guardians, we're better" I heard Niki say, and she was right, we were better.

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><p>Review Review Review! Tell me how i did!<p> 


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18… It wasn't good enough

We got our stuff out of the cars and we headed up to the rooms that we just left. I went into the lobby and asked the lady for a map of the city, she gave me one and I walked back to the room.  
>"Okay, so the first thing we have to do is find out where their base of operations is."<br>"And how are we going to do that?" Lissa asked  
>"I have an idea... Klaus, Eddie, Dimitri, Christian I need you to come with me, Niki I need you to stay here and make sure nothing happens to the moroi."<br>"Rose, we can take care of ourselves let us come with you." Mia pleaded  
>"That's not what I'm worried about." I walked to the door and looked back at Dimitri, Klaus, Eddie, and Christian just standing there.<br>"Well are you coming or not?" they all walked towards the door and we went out towards the lobby.

"Hello, you guys are still here, checkout was an hour ago, are you going to pay for another night?" the desk clerk asked when we walked in. "Yeah sure, we'll pay for another night. Whatever." I didn't really have time and just walked past her behind the counter and into the back room.

I saw him sitting Ina chair behind a desk on the computer, I guess even strigoi got bored. He jumped up as soon as he heard us come in. "What the hell" I didn't flinch, or slow down, I kept walking and slammed him into the wall. "Lock the doors" I heard the doors lock, but I never took my eyes of of the strigoi. He was fighting, but thanks to my trainings with Klaus I was just as strong as this strigoi, but I had Dimitri, Klaus and Eddie in case things got ugly.

"How the he'll are you doing this, you're just a dhampir"  
>"We aren't here to talk about me. Where are they?"<br>"What are you talking about?" he was trying to play dumb, but it wasn't going to work.  
>"You know damn well what I'm talking about, where are the other strigoi?"<br>"I'm not telling you anything!"  
>"That's what I hoped you'd say" I smiled as I stabbed my stake into his stomach. He let out an agonizing scream that made my ears ring.<br>"You bitch" he spat.  
>"That's what they call me, are you ready to tell me where they are yet?" he spit out more blood.<br>"Never" I took my arm off of his neck and stepped back.  
>"Christian, start with his toes, work your way up."<br>"Rose" he said hesitantly.  
>"Just do it!" I shot him daggers and I saw the strigois feet catch on fire. He creamed again, but this time it didn't stop.<br>"Shut up already" I punched him in the jaw and he was quiet. He just stared at the flames slowly creeping up his legs.  
>"You know, fire is one of the things that can kill a strigoi." I was pacing in front of him twirling my stake between my fingers.<br>"So can a silver stake to the heart." I lunged forward and again stabbed him in the now healed wound in his stomach. He screamed yet again and again I punched him.  
>"Yup,definitely silver, just tell me where they are, then I'll kill you quickly, maybe." he looked down to the fire that was now at his waist.<br>"Fine fine I'll tell you" he panted  
>"They're in city hall, that's the headquarters."<br>"Now that wasn't so hard was it?" I drove my stake through his heart and he died instantly. The fire that was engulfing his body went out and when I turned back to the guys they were all looking at me with shocked faces.  
>"It had to be done, and we didn't have time, I brought you guys because I thought you could handle it, maybe I was wrong." I pushed past them and walked out the door.<p>

I got back to the hotel room and I saw Niki giving me a knowing look. Could she really hear me from this far away?  
>"They're in city hall, I'll go over there tonight when we know that all of the strigoi are either there or in some other building, there will be less of a chance of under estimating the numbers with the ability for them to be out on the streets."<br>"You're not going alone," Dimitri walked in and shut the door behind him "I won't let you."  
>"I am and you will Dimitri, no one else is going to get hurt, it was overall my decision to stay here, it may have seemed like Lissa's idea, but I very well could have just not told you that there were more, this is my project and I will be the one to see it through, I am not putting anyone else in danger, and this is only for surveillance, once we know more about what we are dealing with then you guys will have your moment in the spotlight, but for right now you will stay back and do as you're told, all of you." I faced Dimitri for the last part and he just walked away into the other room.<br>"No Rose, you aren't going, I won't let you." Lissa told me and I looked around the room finding everyone else nodding.  
>"Rose there is no more of this lone ranger crap, you are part of a team and I don't know what happened recently that made you forget that but you're not alone in this." Adrian was saying this and I hadn't known that he felt that way, or that he had noticed that I had changed.<p>

I nodded my head "Fine, we'll do it tomorrow, and we'll do it together." they all looked happy and I went off into the room that Dimitri had gone in so that I could go to sleep. Dimitri was sitting on our bed and he looked at me when I walked in the door. I sat down next to him and leaned my head against his chest. He pulled me tighter  
>"You scared me today Roza; I always looked at you as someone so sweet and innocent, even when you killed you still felt bad, it wasn't the torturing of the strigoi that bothered me today, I've seen that hundreds of times, it was that YOU were the one doing it." I sighed and pulled out of his grasp.<br>"I know, and I'm sorry, I should have thought about that before I acted."  
>"Yeah, you should have, but even now, after I've said this I know you wouldn't have because you never do, you never think before you act and that is why you are right more than anyone else, everyone else over thinks things, and you just go with your gut." he gave me a kiss and It was so light and sweet. But that was quickly gone, I pushed him back on the bed and straddled him. I looked into his eyes and my hair fell down around my shoulders almost making a curtain going around our heads. I leaned in and kissed him and it said all of the things that I couldn't, thank you, I'm sorry, I love you, so many things that I just hoped he had received the message, by the way he kissed me back I was pretty sure he had.<p>

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><p>I laid against Dimitri's chest just listening to the steady beat of his heart.<br>"Promise me something?" he asked  
>"Anything" I looked into his eyes seeing if I could get a hint as to what he was going to ask, and I didn't like what I saw.<br>"Promise me you won't go out tonight after those strigoi" I hesitated a second but then  
>"I promise" I laid back down and waited until I heard his breathing steady. It took about half an hour but eventually it did. I sat up listening to hear if anyone else was up. All I heard was the steady sound of people sleeping in both of the rooms next to ours. As quietly as I could I got dressed and went into the closet to get the duffel bag that I had with all of the weapons. I pulled out all of the weapons and laid them on the floor. Then one by one I began to put everything on. First he two swords that I put on my back, next the throwing blades that went in the straps of the swords, then the gun with silver bullets that I put in the waist of my pants and the one that I strapped to my thigh, the I strapped one of my stakes to my hip and the other to my other thigh, I put my knife in one of my boots, and my boots were the ones that when you slammed down the heel the blades would come out the back.<p>

I left some weapons in case there was an attack on the hotel, which was very unlikely, but as a guardian you learn to always be prepared.

I walked over beside Dimitri and gave him a kiss on the forehead, he may not understand why I was doing this, but I had a reason. I never wanted any of my friends to ever feel the way that I felt a couple of nights ago at the diner, and if that meant that I had to kill more, then I would do it, because I needed to protect my friends no matter what the cost, even if it meant that I would have to sacrifice myself and my own morals.

I walked out and shut the door as quietly as I could. It was bright outside, which just didn't seem right for a sneaky kind of mission, but it was still early in the human morning, so it wasn't terribly bright.

I walked down to the parking lot and got in the car. I pictured the map of the town in my head and drove in the direction I knew city hall was in. I parked about two blocks away so that no one would hear me coming. I got out of the cars and stuck to the shadows because I didn't want any passerby's to see a woman with tons of guns and swords dressed in all black, that would be weird, even for a vampire infested town.

I got to city hall and went around to the side. I saw a window that led to the basement and with one expertly aimed kick it broke almost soundlessly. I swung in and landed lightly on my feet. A strigoi at the door turned around as soon as I landed and I threw one of my blades at him and it hit him square in the heart before he had time to scream. As I walked by him I took out my blade and drug his body into the room and shut the door.

I looked both ways down the hall not seeing strigoi in either direction, but since left was a dead end I decided to go right. I walked down the halls checking in every room that I passed. When I got to the last room before I turned I opened the door and found two strigoi guarding about fifteen or so humans, alchemists, and even a dhampir. I got a quick look at the hostages and realized that one of the alchemists was the guy from the diner a couple of nights ago.

I had my gun ready and thanks to the silencer the only sound was them hitting the ground. Once they were dead I went over to the hostages.

I started to untie them and I told them all not to move and not to make any sounds. They all listened whether it was because they were too tired to do anything, or because I had saved their lives, or because I looked so threatening, I don't know, but they all listened.

Once they were all untied I led them to the room where I had come in. I helped them all out of the windows  
>"Okay, now none of you move, it is daylight so you will be safe, but I can't have anyone seeing you around town when you are supposed to be captured." I turned to walk away when Josh called me back<br>"Hey! How did you know we were in there?" he whispered.  
>"I didn't." I turned back and walked out of the room once again shutting the door.<p>

This time I didn't even bother checking the rooms because I already had, instead I walked straight down the corridor and up the stairs into the main lobby.

Believe it or not there was one strigoi sitting at the front desk doing paperwork. I threw one of my knives and it hit him in the heart and i walked over to go get it. As I was walking something hit me in the back of the head. I spun around and faced my attacker.  
>"Really a cowardly way to fight, behind someones back." I spat.<br>"You let the hostages go, you bitch." I didn't give him time to say anything else, I threw a punch that hit him right in the gut and sent him flying across the room until he hit the other wall. I walked over to where he was laying and stabbed him with my stake.

I looked around and there didn't seem to be many rooms on this level, it was all kind of open, but there were two grand staircases on either side going up to the second floor with a balcony over looking the lobby.

I didn't know what was up there but I knew if I went up the staircases there was no element of surprise, they would see me from the first step I took. So I positioned myself under the balcony and jumped. It was only about ten feet off the ground and with my dhampir abilities I was easily able to grab on with my hands. I pulled myself up the rest of the way and hid behind the railing to see if I could see anything. There were two, what looked like conference rooms, that were all glass. There was probably forty strigoi in each conference rooms and none of them seemed to notice what had been going on down stairs.

There was no way for me to attack them one at a time, once one saw me, they would all come. So I needed something big to get there attention. I looked up to the ceiling and found what I was looking for. There was a chandelier hanging right above the secretary's desk. I took my gun back out and shot the chain and it broke. The chandelier came crashing down and all of the strigoi ran out of the conference rooms to see what happened, at than instant I jumped over the railing landing on one knee like you see them do in the movies and I smiled despite myself. And by noticing their shocked faces I realized it probably looked like I jumped the whole way from the ground not just behind the railing.

I stood up and grabbed the two swords from behind my back, I swung them around, daring one of them to make the first move. When none of them did, I lunged forward and with one quick motion I cut off the head of the strigoi closest to me. After that they were all coming at me, now the all wanted to make the first move. But anyone who got within five feet of me either got decapitated or stabbed through the heart. The swords felt good in my hands, familiar, I hadn't used them in a while, but it was like riding a bike, you never forgot.

I was slicing and stabbing and I kept turning around to make sure no one was coming up behind me, but I was too slow. They had strigoi speed, I should have seen it coming, turning every couple of seconds wasn't going to stop them from running into my back.

When he did he knocked both swords out of my hand and they slid across the floor completely out of my reach. I grabbed the stake at my hip and killed him, but I no longer had the one advantage that I used to, space. Now, to fight them, I actually had to fight them, I had to get within arms reach, and since most of them had longer arms then me that was a real disadvantage, not to mention the numbers. There was still about twenty left, but that was a lot.

I did the best I could, and I was kicking ass, I was just as deadly with a stake as I was with a sword, I had killed about five in the span of a minute. I was on my sixth, but when I went to stab him with the stake he caught it, I threw a punch to his jaw and he immediately let go, but he threw me off, and another one found the opportunity to punch me in the side, i kicked him despite the excruciating pain in my side, I definitely had some broken ribs.

Another strigoi took advantage of me being injured and kicked my feet out from under me. I did my best to jump over it but my best wasn't good enough, and he was just too fast. I landed on my back, hard, and he was instantly on top of me. My stake had rolled across the floor and it wouldn't have done any good anyway because he had my arms pinned as well as my legs. There was no way I could reach any of my other weapons and I thought how useless they were. In the time I needed them most they weren't there. I couldn't use the blades in my heel because there was no way for me to push down. I just laid there, helpless, unlike what most people say, my life didn't flash before my eyes, at least the good parts anyway, instead I saw all of the mistakes I had made, all of the people I had hurt, and finally all of the people I had killed, all of the families I had torn apart because of some glorified thing that someone else told me, that it was okay to kill, since when had I ever listened to what someone else told me to do.

I snapped back to reality when I heard the strigoi talk "You are going to taste so good" he lowered his head and I felt the two fangs pricking my skin.


	19. Chapter 19

Okay, so this might be a little OOC for Rose, but it is why I think she is such a bad ass, and why she always tries to do things herself. Hope you guys like it.

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><p>Chapter 19… All was forgiven<p>

I snapped back to reality when I heard the strigoi talk "You are going to taste so good" he lowered his head and I felt the two fangs pricking my skin.

Then his body went limp, I threw him off of me and saw Dimitri standing over me. I jumped up and into his arms, I looked around and saw all of the other strigoi were dead. I kissed Dimitri and then I set my feet back on the ground.  
>"Don't ever do that to me again Roza, I don't think you know how much you mean to me, I would be devastated if I lost you."<br>"I know, I know, and I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it without you." I looked into his eyes and I saw them softening.  
>"We're a team Rose, not you and Lissa, no you and Klaus, you and me, there is no doing anything alone anymore, it's you and me." I had tears rolling down my face by the time he was done and he kissed them away.<br>"I know, and I'm sorry, I just didn't want to put anyone that I love through what I went through the night at the diner, even if that meant sacrificing myself, because I love you guys too much, and I know you were listening when Adrian was talking, and that's when I changed, that is when that thing inside me snapped, and when I realized that I had to protect you guys from me and my stupid plan to go along with Klaus to kill the originals, and I I could go back in time and change anything, it would be taking you guys with me, because I never wanted any of this, I never wanted anyone I loved to feel the way I do, and I will do anything to keep it from happening." by the end I was sobbing and all o the kisses in the world couldn't stop my tears so Dimitri just sat me down and rocked me back and forth.  
>"Roza," he whispered and I heard him sigh. "you are so strong, and I can't believe the things you are doing for your friends, I don't deserve someone so kind and thoughtful, and no one thinking like this could ever be cruel, Rose you have to believe that, if you think that strigoi are innocent, that all of the people they have killed-"<br>"That's not what I think, Dimitri, what I think is that they don't have a choice, and I just took away from them any chance they ever had to be able to turn back and into what they were before, bit we've already had this conversation Dimitri, so just hold me?" he responded by squeezing me tighter and it hurt because of my broken ribs, but it was a good kind of pain, one that cleared your head and reminded you that you are loved.

I leaned into him and cried, I cried because of all of the people that I had just killed, and because I was so close to never feeling these arms around me again, and never smelling him again and never hearing his beautiful voice softly whispering Russian in my ear, and feeling his breath on my neck. He was my world and I almost lost him.

After about an hour I had no more tears to cry and I stood up, Dimitri stood up too and I realized that I had left the hostages outside all this time.

We went outside and the hostages were still there, some were sleeping and others were basking in the sunlight that they light not have seen for weeks, but whatever they were doing they looked up when I walked around the corner.  
>"Okay so you can all go home now, all of the strigoi are dead and so no one will be suspicious when you come home, and even if they are they can't do anything. Josh I need you to go in there and catalog all of the deaths."<br>"Wait, how do you know my name, I've never seen you before." Shit, Lissa compelled him to forget us.  
>"I called Sydney when I found out about the strigoi threat and she said that you were the alchemist closest to here." He nodded and then walked inside to get rid of the bodies.<p>

"Okay, now you guys just go home, don't stop anywhere, just go home and lock your doors." they all nodded and went on there way. "Dimitri we have to go to the other stores to get any strigoi that were not at city hall."

So we spent the rest of the human day going In every single store and checking to see if strigoi were in them, surprisingly about half of the stores did have strigoi in the back rooms.

We got back to the hotel and no one was up yet, thank goodness, because I just couldn't handle the scrutiny coming from anyone else. I went into the bathroom to take a shower and wash the blood off. Dimitri didn't wan to let me out of his sight, I think I was because he was afraid that I was going to break down again, and really I could have, but I kept telling myself that I just had to hold it together. I got out of the shower and after I got dressed I started to clean the weapons and pit them back in the bag when Klaus walked in.

"So how did your little rescue mission go?" I looked at him surprised and he just shook his head "Don't play dumb with me, you know I don't sleep, and you weren't exactly quiet, you might as well have slammed the door shut when you left."  
>"Well then why didn't you try and stop me, I could have been killed." I wasn't really expecting him to come after me but an explanation would be nice.<br>"I figured it was some hero mission that you thought you had to do on your own to protect your friends, and after I saw what you did to that strigoi I k we you weren't going to let anyone stand in your way, and there would be no stopping you." well he was right about that, I guess being alive for thousands of years gives you the amazing ability to be able to read people like books.  
>"well my little rescue mission was very successful, thank you for asking, we killed all of them, and the people of the town are now safe from the evil vampires." I said it sarcastically but he didn't catch on, or just didn't want to show that he did.<p>

He got up and left, and I finished cleaning the blades and Dimitri came out of the shower. The towel was rapped around his waist and the light in the room was reflecting off of his still damp muscles.  
>"I'm so lucky to have you," I slipped my arms around his waist and leaned my head on his back "I love you."<br>He turned around and held my head between his hands and tilted it so he was looking into my eyes. "If anyone is lucky it's me, you were amazing today, even if I didn't get to see you, I saw all of the destruction you left in your path. No one messes with Rose Hathaway Belikov and survives." he said it with one of his gorgeous smiles that showed off his perfect, white teeth.  
>"You've got that right." I gave him a kiss and then let him get back to getting dressed. I walked outside to where the rest of the group was sitting.<br>"So I think that we should go on survallience today, maybe stake out the city hall, see how much foot traffic we have, and then we can see if it's possible to get someone on the inside, maybe send in Klaus or Niki, or both and then once we know what we are dealing with we can make a plan of attack." Eddie looked to the group for confirmation and then looked to me. "Oh, sorry Rose I know you usually like to make the plans, if you don't think it's good then we can scrap it."  
>"No Eddie, it sounds great, but, umm unnecessary." I looked down at my feet mentally preparing myself for what was about to happen.<br>"Oh no Rose, you didn't, please, tell me you didn't" he begged.  
>"I'm sorry Eddie, I can't do that" I looked around to all of the faces, and they pretty much all looked the same, disappointed, except for Lissa's, hers was angry.<p>

"I can't believe you would do this Rose, after everything we said, you could have been killed, or worse, turned. How do you think we would feel then, when you're one of the bad guys Rose, were you even thinking about us at all, or were you so caught up in being the hero that you forgot about your friends!" Lissa's face was red with tears streaming down, and I could feel myself starting to cry, but how dare she think I wasn't thinking about them.  
>"Not thinking about you, that's all I was doing! That night at the diner, when the waitress asked how I was able to kill all of those strigoi without looking back, it killed me! I had been going through the motions, but never thinking, all of those strigoi had families, brothers and sisters, families that I ripped them away from, they will never be able to go back to the people that loved them and tell them that they are all right, and it's all my fault! I never wanted any of you to feel that way, even in the slightest! And I would do anything that it took to make sure it wouldn't happen to you, even if that meant risking myself and everything that I stood for! So don't you dare stand there and accuse me of not thinking of you, because you are the reason I did this!" I was sobbing by the end and when I felt the strong arms encircle me I fell to the ground.<p>

Dimitri was sitting there next to me and when I looked up I saw Lissa frozen where she was sobbing almost as hard as I was.  
>"Oh my God, Rose, I'm so sorry, I, I, I didn't know." she said between sobs. I saw tears in almost everyone's eyes-except for klaus because he already knew what i had done and why-but that didn't change the fact that my best friend the one I trusted with all of my secrets accused me of not caring. "No Lissa, I just can't do this." I got up and pushed Dimitri off of me, I gave him a look saying that I needed to be alone, and he nodded, I knew that he would stay here and help klaus calm everyone down, and explain things, but I just had to get away.<p>

I walked out of the room and slammed the door on my way out. I ran down the stairs, but I didn't stop, I just kept running. I ran for probably half an hour, pushing myself as hard as I could trying to get out all of my pent up anger and frustration, but it just wasn't working as well as hitting something would, and like on command something stopped in the path in front of me. I skidded to a halt and on closer examination found that it was a strigoi.

"You know, you ruined m whole little project here." she said.  
>"what you mean seeing how long you could use humans as walking blood bags before they went crazy, sorry." I was walking closer with each word I spoke, and she either didn't care or didn't notice, but from the looks of it I would say that it was did t care. She was regal, dressed in an all black skirt suit, with her jet black hair in a French twist, all in complete contrast to her starch white skin and ruby red lips. She gave a little chuckle at my comment.<br>"No, me experiment to see if humans and vampires could live in peace, vampires running the town, while humans lived for the high offered to them by the strigoi bite, and it was working, until you and your little crew showed up."  
>"Well it might have worked had your little strigoi minions been keeping people hostage, and drinking from people, and controlling human beings like they are some type of pet, so, I guess it wouldn't have worked, my bad." she chuckled again.<br>"Well you gave me some ideas for the next town I try this in, now all I have to do is get you out of the way." Now it was my turn to laugh.  
>"If I had a dollar for every time I heard that." I mused and with strigoi speed she came at me. Usually I would have staked her right there, but this one was special because I really wanted to hit something, and, her being the mastermind behind all of this mean that she was the soul reason for all of these people's suffering.<p>

I punched and kicked as hard as I could, getting out all of my anger, but she was matching me blow for blow, and when I missed one of her hits, with strigoi strength I was punched in the ribs, again. I screamed in agony and doubled my efforts against her. She didn't seem to see it coming and I overtook her within minutes. Once I had her on the ground I drove my stake through her heart.  
>"It's a shame, that was a nice suit, my size too."<p>

I got up and then realized that I had also either fractures or broke my ankle. I limped the whole way back the the hotel, and without my speed it took me about an hour. I hobbled in through the door.  
>"I'm so sorry Rose, I had no ide-" she cut herself of when she noticed me limping and clutching my side. "What happened!" she shrieked. She immediately ran over to me and began to heal me.<br>"No Lissa you can't, you have to save your energy." but my attempts were useless.  
>"this is all my fault, if I wouldn't have yelled at you, you wouldn't have stormed off, and you wouldn't have gotten yourself hurt" I think she was talking more to herself then to me but it didn't matter, I could still hear.<p>

When she was done she gave me a hug that would have been excruciating had she not just got done healing me.  
>"I'm so sorry Rose, I should never have doubted you, I'm sorry." she was crying again and I just held her tighter.<br>"Lissa it's okay, I forgive you. You just didn't know the whole story."  
>"But I should have listened to it before I made crude accusations. I'm sorry Rose."<br>"I forgive you Lissa"  
>"and I go back on what I said when you got mad at Niki. I don't ever want you to be mad at me." she was trying to lighten the mood, but it just brought it down.<br>"I wasn't mad at you Lissa, I was hurt, I thought that we would always trust each other, that we would never let something like that come between us." I looked at her and a fresh wave of tears came over both of us.  
>"I know, it was stupid, I was just jealous of how strong you were, and how you always seemed to look at me like a nuisance instead of an equal." we hugged again and I could tell that all was forgiven.<p>

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><p>Okay so that was enough crying for me to last like, forever, but i promise, there is a reason that i'm doing all of this set up, it's gonna be for something HUGE at the end. Okay so tell me what you think!<p>

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	20. Chapter 20

Okay, so here it is, Chapter 20, I'd like to give a shout out to my cousin and co author Jazzi123 It's her birthday today :D so this is her birthday present, because i'm broke :D

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><p>Chapter 20… I think I can fix that<p>

We left the morning after and went on our way to whatever dungeon Klaus was leading us to. We were driving the while day and Lissa and I were talking again, and it was like we were in the academy again. She was telling me all of the things, spirit related, that she had learned, and how much of an ass Adrian was being when she was trying to get him to concentrate, and I just felt good to have my best friend back. We were laughing and whispering and making light of all the terrible things that had happened since this mission of mine and Klaus' started.

The car ride went by pretty quickly, because it wasn't even sunrise yet when Klaus pulled over the car and said that we should stop here to get our rest because any closer and Elijah would be able to sense them.

We pulled the cars off to the side of the road and set up the tents in the woods. Once the fire was started and the tents were up we all just stayed up talking.  
>"So how many strigoi were there in City Hall?" Rob asked, and everyone looked at me questioningly.<br>"Well there were eighty in the conference rooms and then probably about ten on the lower levels."  
>"You killed all of them on your own?" Lissa asked me amazed.<br>"Well not all of them." I looked at Dimitri and gave him a loving smile and I heard Mia gasp.  
>"Dimitri went too?"<br>"Well I didn't plan on him coming, but he was there when I needed him" I scooted closer to him and he wrapped his arms around me "I would have been dead without him" Now it wasn't just Mia who gasped, it was everybody.  
>"Well don't just leave us hanging" Adrian complained, so I went through the whole battle, the hostages, the chandelier, looking like I was jumping from the first floor, and my kick ass performance with the swords, then when I got to the part where the striogi was about to kill me I paused.<br>"You know, I'm kind of tired, I think that I'm going to go to bed, we can finish this story tomorrow, right guys?" I yawned for dramatic effect.  
>"NOOOOO!" they all shouted and I laughed then continued the story. I even told them about my run in with the lady in the black suit. After I was done with my story the sun was coming up and it was time for all of us to go to bed.<br>"Get your rest; you're going to need it." Klaus warned and we all retreated to our tents.

The next morning we all got up pretty much at the same time and we went into our normal routine of Lissa, and Niki making breakfast, Rob getting wood and Christian making a fire, Mia getting us all water, and everyone else just sitting on their asses telling them how they could do their job better. So that is what I was currently doing.  
>"Come on Sparky, I've made a better fire than that with just two sticks and an attitude."<br>"You were right about the attitude part." He shot back. I scowled at him  
>"Yeah, well maybe you would want me to give you lessons because I thought for it to count as a fire there actually had to be flames." He flicked his hand over his shoulder and I just barely had time to dodge the fireball that was headed straight for my face. I heard it hit the ground behind me and sizzle away.<br>"Ohhhhhhhh Christian you do not want to start battles that you can't win." I warned, he turned around and looked right at me,  
>"I didn't." I shot up faster than I thought possible but somehow Dimitri managed to wrap his hands around my waist and hold me back.<br>"Oh, come on Comrade, its practice, for when he gets in hand to hand combat with Strigoi and when I'm fighting originals that are able to use magic." Dimitri gave me an 'I'm no buying it' look and pulled me back down beside him. Christian stuck his tongue out at me and I just wanted to cut it off, but all I could do without fighting Dimitri too was flick him the bird.

Christian finally got the fire started and so Niki and Lissa cooked the breakfast they prepared and we all ate in silence, until Klaus told us the plan for today.  
>"We're gonna practice today, and it is going to be moroi verses the rest of us. It's gonna be one on one but instead of us trying to teach you any more hand to hand combat you are going to have to learn as you go on how you can use your magic to win these battles, because trying to shove years worth of experience down your throat is just useless. So you will learn to fight with your element, and the rest of us will learn how defend ourselves against it. By the end of the week everyone should know how to defend themselves against every element, that also means that moroi will have to fight moroi, is everyone clear?" everyone nodded and I jumped up,<br>"I call Christian! You and I have a prior engagement." I looked at him and he looked cocky, and just begging for an ass kicking. I smiled as I walked into the tent to get changed from my pajamas to my work out clothes.

When I got out of the tent I headed straight for Christian.  
>"You ready to lose?" I asked<br>"Strange, I was going to ask you the same question." he shot back.  
>"Well you know what they say."<br>"What, what could they possibly say about fire using moroi fighting dhamirs with strigoi speed?" he asked  
>"I don't know I was hoping you did." we both laughed and then it was time to get down to business.<p>

The first thing he did was light himself on fire,  
>"Oh, so not fair" I complained.<br>"There are no rules Rose, you're just going to have to improvise." I could see the smirk even behind the thick wall of flames. I looked around the camp sight and found what I was looking for. Before Christian could even notice I swung my foot around and hooked it on the handle of the bucket, then I flung it into my hands and threw its contents of ice water all over him. It sizzled like water hitting hot grease as it put out the fire, it also managed to get him completely soaked, his hair was dangling in his face and I could see the scowl forming on his lips.  
>"I improvised" I said with a smirk "aren't you proud?" instead of answer he threw a fire ball at me that I easily dodged.<br>"Ooooh, someones angry." I kicked the back of his knees and he fell to the ground. He grabbed my feet and pulled them out from under me and I was now on the ground too. I tried to pop up, but right before I did a wall of fire blocked my path. I looked up at it with a death glare, but I took a breath and plunged through it anyway. I could feel it burning my skin, taking all of the moisture from my body and burning it to a crisp. It seemed to go on forever but finally I broke through and could see the forest again.

I was up on my feet and looking at a shocked Chrstian. I smiled at him and then punched him in the chest. He flew through the air for a while and then landed at the foot of a tree. I walked over to him and he was throwing fireballs at me nonstop, but compared to the hell that I just went through, when those things hit me they just sizzled and then were gone.

I leaned over him and jammed my fist into his ribs. "Dead" I panted, and rolled back on my heels and stood up. I looked down at myself and frowned. My clothes were torn with scorch marks, and everywhere there was no clothing-which was a lot considering how much of it got burnt off-was so red I looked like a lobster. Not only was I red but I was hot, it felt like I was running a hundred and fifty degree fever. I looked back at Christian  
>"These were my favorite sweat pants" I limped away and back closer to camp. Lissa and Adrian were both still out somewhere fighting but Mia was there.<br>"Hey Mia, you think you could get me some really cold water, like really cold?"  
>"Sure Rose" she looked up and then screamed. "Oh my God Rose! What happened?" She shrieked.<br>"Christian happened." I looked over and he was still sitting at the base of the tree.  
>"Let me get that water" she said and as I was looking where I was going to put it so I could get in it I instantly felt better. I looked around and realized that Mia was just bending the water around me, she wasn't getting my face because then I wouldn't be able to breath, but every other part of my body was being covered in ice cold water.<p>

Adrian was done before Lissa and he came over to heal me. Everyone else finished soon after and we switched partners after lunch. And that's how it went for the rest of the week, we fought two people a day, and every day we came up with new tricks to either attack or dodge.

When the week was up we packed up the camp sight and got in the cars. We only drove for about an hour before Klaus stopped the head car and got out.  
>"We're gonna have to walk from here, we don't want him to hear the cars."<p>

We walked along the road for a while and then we turned off into the forest. I was surprised Klaus knew where he was going, because even with my good sense of direction I was lost die to the thick underbrush.  
>"Are you sure you know where you are going?" I whispered.<br>"I know exactly where I'm going." he didn't look back when he said it, just kept walking, and in a couple of minutes we came to a clearing. But not the kind of clearing we usually had been going to, no, this one went on for miles in all directions. I looked straight ahead and up on a hill I saw a castle.

It was huge and magnificent and it looked completely redone. You could tell that it was old but despite that it looked in perfect condition.

"The dungeon is in there! If he has any scouts, or any smarts he will see us coming for miles, literally!" I whispered at Klaus.  
>"He does have scouts, but he also has a back entrance, we just have to find it." he told me.<br>"Whoa whoa whoa, how come you never told us there was a secret entrance, we had to use our bows and arrows to try and shoot the scouts from here!" Niki chastised.  
>"I didn't know there was a secret entrance then, now can we just start looking?" Klaus looked at Niki and she sighed. "It will be on the line of trees and it'll kind of look-"<br>"Like a man-hole cover?" Wendy said pointing to the ground. We all walked over and Klaus took it off like I was a bottle cap and jumped down.  
>"How far down is it?" I asked wondering if the moroi would be able to make it.<br>"About twenty five feet." Klaus whispered back. They weren't going to make that without getting at least a sprained ankle, and we couldn't afford and yelps of pain.  
>"Can you catch them?" I whispered to Klaus.<br>"Of course I can catch them." Klaus mimed fake hurt and I just shook my head.  
>"Okay, so jump in, Klaus will catch you." I looked around and Wendy was already walking over to the hole, but Rob was backing away from it shaking his head.<br>"No I am not risking my life jumping down there and HOPING that that GUY catches me." I just walked over to him and picked him up.  
>"If you ruin the element of surprise I will kill you." By the time I got him to the hole most all of the other moroi had jumped in. I threw him in and thanked God he didn't scream. I jumped down after and Klaus caught me,<br>"You really didn't have to do that, I could have landed just fine on my own." He just put me down and smirked. I looked over to Rob and he was officially white, the whitest I had ever seen a moroi. I lightly smacked him until his eyes focused on something. He looked around,  
>"Dirt," he muttered. I looked at him confused,<br>"I could have lowered myself down, or made stairs, or something." I smacked him upside the head for not thinking about it earlier and by the time we were done everyone else was down and Wendy was using air to close the man-hole cover.

We walked in the underground path for a couple of miles, all of them uphill and hunched over. Finally we got to where the dirt turned into stone and the four foot roof turned into an eight foot roof. I looked around and then looked at Klaus because there were three ways to go and when you looked down to the end of those they all split off in to two directions and although I couldn't see it I bet that at the end of those pathways were two more choices, maybe even more. He pointed to the left one and I followed it. We got to the next one and he pointed again, but I just stepped out of the way because it would go a lot faster if we just followed him. We walk for a couple of more minutes when I hear something behind me. I whip around and I see Dimitri fighting a strigoi, but that's all I see, just Dimitri. No Eddie or Mia or Lissa, Christian, Wendy, Niki, Rob, they're all gone. Dimitri stakes the Strigoi and when he sees my face he turns around, probably thinking he is going to see tons of Strigoi, but when he sees nothing his face is as horrified as mine.

Klaus noticed that we stopped walking and turns around.  
>"Shit!" I look at him and shushed him.<br>"It doesn't matter, he knows we're here, he's just playing games. Isn't that right Elijah?" Klaus asked no one in particular, yet I heard a booming voice echoing off all of the walls.  
>"That's right little brother, because I love playing games."<br>"I love playing games too, but I'm a really sore loser, so you better watch out." I say it like Klaus did, to no one on particular, and I assume he got the message because I heard the walls laugh. I knew it wasn't actually the walls but that is what it sounded like.  
>"Just watch out for snatchers" Klaus keeps walking without elaborating what snatchers are, but I wasn't too sure I wanted to know.<br>"But now he knows where we are, we lost the element of surprise, and the few numbers that we had." I see Klaus shaking his head.  
>"He doesn't know where we are, he just knows that we are here and where we are going to be."<br>"How does he know where we are going to be?" I question.  
>"Because it's where our friends are." he didn't even hesitate when he sayid our friends and despite the situation it made me feel good that Klaus looked at them as his friends too, even but I guess that's what you did when you were sleeping with one.<p>

Klaus expertly led us around the dungeon and eventually we came to a room filled with light. I took a while for my eyes to adjust from complete darkness to such a bright light and once they did I saw all of my friends with their hands chained above them. But they weren't alone in the room there were Strigoi in every corner and bones littering the floor, now that I had the light and looked around I noticed that the pathway we came from was also littered in bones of past victims I'm assuming.

I walked in to try and unlock the locks on the handcuffs and the door that was behind the three of us closed and in front of it stood who I'm assuming was Elijah.

He was pale, and that's all I could use to describe him, he had white hair, white eyes without any pupils, and he was in all white robes, it was hard to tell if he was a ghost or an angel, but by the power behind the eyes you could tell it was nothing good.

Christian tried to light him on fire the instant he walked in the room but he held up his hand and no matter how hard Christian pushed it wouldn't pass his hand, and it didn't even seem to be tiring him out, but Christian on the other hand looked awful, but he was distracted. I started to unlock everybody and who would have thought that knowing how to pick a lock with bobby pins would be so useful. While I was doing that Dimitri and Klaus were killing the other Strigoi in the room. Christian finally let down the wall of fire and if he wasn't still handcuffed he would have fallen to the ground. Lissa ran over to him but Klaus shook his head, she backed away and I ran over to him while everyone else tried and distract Elijah. No one was doing as good a job as Christian, even all three of the others combined but I still managed to get him un-handcuffed and threw him over my shoulder. Elijah was turned around and now we were by the door and he was by the wall. I opened the door and saw strigoi after strigoi coming down two of the three hallways. I hated to do this but I knew when it was going to take a miracle to win, and this was one of those times.  
>"Ummm guys, I think we should go, we're too outnumbered and once you stop using your power against Elijah you'll be useless." We all started backing up when Lissa tripped on one of the man bones on the floor.<br>"I think I can fix that."

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><p>REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! tell me what you think! what is Lissa going to do to even out the numbers? Is everyone going to die! That would be a sucky bday present ;)<p> 


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21  
><em>"Ummm <em>_guys, __I__ think __we__ should__ go,__ we're __too __outnumbered __and__ once__ you __stop __using __your__ power __against __Elijah __you'll__ be__ useless."__We __all__ started __back in __when__ Lissa __tripped__ on__ one __of__ the __man__y bones__ on __the __floor.__  
>"I<em>_ think __I __can __fix__ that."  
><em>  
>I looked at Lissa and she smiled. She closed her eyes and I could feel the energy coming off of her. The first strigoi in the line began to fall, there didn't seem to be any reason, they just dropped to the ground, about twenty or thirty, and what happened next was even scarier. All of the bones beneath our feet started to move. Then the bones started coming together and they were connecting to look like humans again. No longer were the bones on the floor just bones on the floor, they were skeletons and now they weren't even on the floor anymore they were walking, and then they were running, running towards the strigoi that were coming upon us from two of the three tunnels. At the same time Christian sprang awake looking totally re-energized and all of the other moroi looked less tired too. I looked at Lissa and she smiled.<br>"I told you I could fix it"

Elijah looked at her and after the shock left his face he smiled.  
>"You have the gift"<br>"Damn right I have the gift, and I'm gonna kill you with it."  
>"Are you sure about that, I have had many more years of experience than you, but you could stay with me, I could teach you everything I know and more." he was looking at her with dreamy eyes and it creeped me out.<br>"Never" her face became strained again and after a couple of seconds so did his. I took my attention off of them and realized that all of the bone people that Lissa had created were fighting off the Strigoi, but the Strigoi were still gaining ground so I went over to help them. Dimitri, Klaus, Niki, and Eddie did the same thing.

There was still about a hundred Strigoi and I knew that they would be easy to get rid of. What really scared me though was Elijah and Lissa. I would have gone over there and helped Lissa fight him but I was scared. They used a type of magic that you couldn't see, if he wanted to, right now he could kill all of us, with one look he could end our lives and it wasn't something we could fight like we could water or fire. So this was one time that I was perfectly fine with leaving it up to Lissa.

When I was first watching the bone people I was wondering how they were going to kill the Strigoi without a weapon, and I was amazed when I saw them chop off their heads with just a flick of their wrists. I was left to do it the old fashioned way, along with Dimitri, Eddie, Niki, and Klaus. I saw the other moroi switching glances between the Strigoi and Elijah and then came to the same decision I did, that they didn't want to fight what they couldn't see, well accept for Adrian, he was standing right next to Lissa mirroring her movements, which were very limited.

Soon the ten Strigoi that were surrounding me burst into flames and I staked them all in rapid succession. The other moroi were helping the other members of our team and between that and the bone people we were taking down the Strigoi quickly.

I heard a scream and whipped around. I saw Adrian on the floor clutching his head in between his hands, Elijah had a small smile on his face and Lissa had a scowl. Before I had time to react I was punched into the side and went flying across the hall. I rolled off of the Strigoi that I had landed on top of and they all bounced up before I could stop seeing stars. One of them kicked me in the side and I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming because there was no way I was going to break Lissa's concentration. The lack of a reaction seemed to anger him even more and he picked me up, his hands around my neck. At that point I would have screamed if I could, because now my stake was on the floor, where I had been laying only moments before.

For only a second was I scared and then my brain just started working, devising a plan on how to get out of this strigoi's death grip. I knew no one else would help me because they were all engrossed on their own battle of the wills. I went through all of the moves first in my head, along with all of the counter measures that he could take. Thanks to my guardian training I was able to do this in less than a second and he had no idea what was coming.

My feet were no longer on the floor which is what I was waiting for. He was holding me up with his right hand so I swung my legs to my right and got the inside of my knees around his neck. He was shocked and so his grip loosened. I grabbed his arm and twisted until I heard a snap, I also used it as leverage so that I could pull my body up and around so that now I was sitting on top of his shoulders. I let go of his arm and instead put my hands on his head and snapped his neck. He collapsed to the ground, and the way that my legs were hanging allowed me to land on my feet. I caught the edge of my stake with my foot and flicked it up into my hands with my toes. I caught it by the handle and stood there ready to fight the next Strigoi that came at me. But unlike my friends most of them had seen what I had done and so none of them wanted to come at me, so that left me to make the first move, which I was happy to do.

Most of the rest of the Strigoi went down without a fight, and even after they were all dead Lissa was still fighting Elijah, and Adrian was still kneeling on the ground silently screaming.

Lissa didn't look good and Elijah looked the same as ever, maybe just a little tired, but Lissa looked ready to drop dead.

I made a decision that I couldn't just stand there watching and I went into the room. As silently as I could I walked around the edge of the room making sire to stay out of Elijahs view, which wasn't impossible considering it was fixed solely on Lissa. I got behind him and drive my stake into his back. As soon as my stake came in contact with his skin I felt a pain that I had never experienced before, by it wasn't in my hand it was in my head. I was still conscious of what was going on around me, but I also could feel someone in my head. They were going through my head, searching all of my private memories, searching for something, anything that they might be able to use to destroy me, and that was the worst part, that I knew they were searching for the weakness that was bound to come up eventually. I wasn't sure if it was Lissa or Elijah or both, but I worked past the pain and drove my stake the rest of the say into his heart. Instantly the pain stopped, and the relief that I felt was like nothing I had ever felt before. I took in a huge breath and it didn't even matter that the air was filled with the smell of mildew and decay.

Dimitri immediately ran over to me and Lissa went to check on Adrian. I had collapsed to floor after I had put my stake safely in his heart and I didn't get up until Dimitri came and picked me up.  
>"Dimitri you can put me down, I'm fine." he put me down and I stumbled, he was there in an instant with his arms back under me.<br>"Really Dimitri I'm fine, I just have to get my bearings."  
>"Well then I'm carrying you until you get them back." I sighed because I didn't want to look weak but really I loved it when Dimitri carried me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned my head into his chest. Lissa let all of the bone people fall back to just being bones on the floor again and then we began our long walk back, accept this time we went out the front entrance so that we could walk back outside.<p>

After about an hour or two we got back to the cars and before we got in interned to Lissa.  
>"Hey Lis, not trying to undermine your awesome skills but why didn't you just kill all of the Strigoi and then use that energy to kill Elijah?" everyone else around us shook their heads and then looked at Lissa.<br>"Well two reasons, first of all because it didn't really kill the Strigoi, actually they should be waking up right about now. Because there already dead taking away all of their energy doesn't actually kill them, it just incapacitates them for a few hours. And then you'd probably ask still why I didn't just do that and then use that energy to kill Elijah, well it's because that energy has to have somewhere to go, just like having too little energy can kill anybody living, so can too much energy. I took just enough to bring the bone people to life and give the other moroi the energy they needed to return theirs to normal, so that's why I did that." she finished her speech and I nodded in understanding.  
>"Well I can fix one of the many problems that we are facing." I turned to Klaus wondering what he was talking about. He reached into his pocket and pulled out rings and necklaces, each one of them with a pitch black stone set somewhere within, some bigger than others. He began passing them out and I looked at him questioningly.<br>"They're used to store energy, I took them from one of Elijah's rooms as the rest of you were walking back here. Lissa said that she had no where to put that energy before, well now she does, so every day you are going to take energy from the living things around us and you are going to put it into these rings, " he turned to Lissa for the last part and then looked at the rest of us. "and all you guys have to do is concentrate on the stone and the energy will flow into you, so study your stone, memorize every chip and crack that is visible, every sparkle, every reflection that it makes, and then when you need energy picture it in your head and it will transfer from the stone into you." I turned the stone over in my hand, amazed at what it's purpose was.  
>"There is just one problem" we all turned to Klaus once again hoping he would explain himself. "Vladimir's Strigoi are impervious to energy snatching. Just as Elijah was and just as Vladimir himself is. Like I said, he is the most powerful o all of us, he has powers that you don't even know exist, I would say you have to be prepared, but there is absolutely no way that you can be, it's impossible, I will help you with as many of the things that I know but he has learned even more tricks since I have been gone, and since I can't do magic I only know the results, not what it took to make them." All the moroi nodded and then we got in the cars and drove.<p>

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><p>Sorry it took so long for me to update YET AGAIN and i know that this chapter is short. But i wrote something else :) I wrote a oneshotsong fic and it is about Dimitri leaving Rose for Tasha and it is amazing, its called "my shattered heart" and so if you want something else to read there it is. I just got inspired while i was listening to music and hand to write it down. And hey! maybe if you guys review i will get the next chapter out faster ;) you never know :) i would also like you to mention if you do review on the other story to say that you read it because i mentioned it, or if you review here and read the other story tell me that too. I know lots of work ;P you guys are great, i hope you liked it.


	22. Chapter 22

Again, even though i say this every time I AM SOOOOO SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! homework has just been piling up and semester exams are coming soon, and school has just been so hectic i have barely had time to breath, plus my internet went out so i had to do 166 questions on A Tale of Two Cities at the internet cafe at our local mall while my mom, cousin, and aunt all went shopping, it was torture. But i pulled through and here it is, the next chapter of There Are More, I hope it was worth the wait.

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><p>Chapter 22 Forever and Always…<p>

We drove back to the same place that we were camping before and we set up camp again. There was still a couple of hours until the sun came up so we all just sat around a fire that Christian started. I was staring at the ring that Klaus had given me. It was beautiful, the stone was about the size of my pinkie nail. The ring had all of these intricate designs in the metal and every time I looked at it I found something new.

I looked at it again and on the inside of the ring, up where the gemstone was I saw what looked like writing. I didn't know what it said because it was in a different language all I saw were a bunch of letters. "Semper saecula"

"Hey Klaus! What does this mean?" he took the ring from my fingers and looked at what I was talking about.  
>"It says 'forever and always' in Latin, someone else has its partner that says 'I will love you' and when you put them together they are the only rings that can do more than just give you stored energy." I stared at the ring wondering what it could do.<br>"Like what?" Klaus just shook his head  
>"I don't know, no one knows where the other ring is." my face immediately fell.<br>"So when you said someone had it you just meant someone on the earth, not someone in this group?" He nodded.

We talked for a little longer and then I heard Dimitri say that he wanted to go to bed.  
>"I guess I'll go to be too then." I said getting up, but then everyone looked a me strange.<br>"What do you mean 'too'?" Lissa asked. Now it was my turn to look at them strangely.  
>"Didn't you just hear Dimitri say he wanted to go to bed.<br>"No I didn't" she said looking at him.  
>"Rose I didn't say anything."<br>"Oh, well I'm still going to bed" I got up and walked over to my tent and Dimitri followed.  
>I was snuggled up to Dimitri but despite my exhaustion I wasn't able to fall asleep.<br>"Did you see me fight that Strigoi today?" I felt him chuckle  
>"You're going to have to be more specific."<br>"I mean the one where I totally kicked ass."  
>"Oh yeah." he said like he hadn't already known the one I was talking about from the beginning. "you were pretty good."<br>"Pretty good? I was amazing." I said, but when leaned up and looked at his face I saw that he was smiling. He lifted his head up and kissed me. No matter how many times we had done it I still got butterflies and my heart still did back flips. I pulled away breathless and I grabbed his hand that wasn't around my waist and grabbed it in mine. I notched it was the one that he was wearing his ring on, and it felt different wedding ring so I knew it was the one Klaus had given us. I brought his hand up to look at and started to examine the ring. It had the same designs on it as mine did, but for some reason that I would never be able to understand it looked more masculine. It could have been that the lines weren't as curvy, but that was the only thing I could tell. I studied more closely and Dimitri was looking ad me questioningly.  
>"Can I see it?" He took it off and handed it to me. I turned it over and loomed at the metal under where the gemstone was and I saw the same type of writing that mine had and I couldn't help but smile. I showed it to Dimitri<br>"How much do you want to bet that says 'I will love you'" he looked at it confused  
>"Rose there is nothing written there" I looked at the ring and as clear as day I saw the writing that was on mine.<br>"Are we looking at the same ring, you really mean that you can't see what is written on there?" he shook his head  
>"Rose I have no idea what you are talking about." I shook my head amazed, why would I be able to see it and not Dimitri? I immediately got up and walked outside the tent, Dimitri followed.<p>

Everyone else had already gone in their tents and all that was left of the once blazing fire was a couple of burning hot coals. I went over to go stand be them because it was still freezing outside, and coals actually put off a lot of heat.  
>"Klaus" I whispered, Dimitri looked at me<br>"Rose what if he's sleeping?"  
>"He doesn't sleep" I said at the same time Klaus said "I don't sleep" it wouldn't have scared me except for the fact that he was standing right behind me. Once my heart started to return to normal I showed Klaus the ring.<br>"Can you see that writing?" I handed him the ring and he looked at me like I was insane.  
>"What writing?" Dimitri looked relieved that he wasn't the only one that couldn't see it.<br>"The writing that says 'I will love you' this is the exact match to my ring, you can't tell me that you guys can't see it." they both shook their heads.  
>"Lissa" I called, this time a little louder, knowing that she probably would be asleep. A couple of minutes later she came out of her tent all sleepy eyed.<p>

"What do you want Rose?" she walked over to me and I showed her the ring.  
>"What do you see?" I asked, she shook her head<br>"You woke me up for this?" she looked at me disbelievingly.  
>"Just tell me what you see." she shook her head<br>"I see carvings, flowers, swirls, I don't know, why do you want me to do this?" I looked at the ring, still seeing the Latin that no one else could see.  
>"I had a theory, but it wasn't it." I thought that the only two things different from me and Dimitri and Klaus was that I had a spirit mark and that I was a girl, but Lissa was both, so it was neither of those.<p>

I looked around on the ground for a stick, I found one and so I started to draw the letters that I saw on the ring in the dirt. When I got finished I stood back and looked at what I had spelled in the dirt "Diligam te."

"What does that say?" I looked to Klaus for the answer because he was the only one that could read Latin.  
>"It says 'I will love you' but where did you see that, you don't know Latin. Do you?" he looked at me and I shook my head.<br>"Tell me the story, the one behind the rings." He looked at me questioningly and motioned for us to sit down, I was expecting Lissa to go back into the tent but she stayed outside.

"Well you know about the original vampires, at least you know a little bit about them, it would take me half as long as we have been around for me to tell you everything. Anyways the first of Elijah's kids, the ones that could still be born not made could use magic, and eventually those Strigoi turned into moroi, their weakness was that they couldn't live forever, but you already knew that, and that isn't part of the point. What is is the Strigoi that could use magic and still live forever." I heard a gasp come from Lissa because we had always been taught that when turn Strigoi you lose your magic and that was the price for living forever, but now that went out the window. But he didn't notice her shock and just continued on with the story. "He got all of them together about seven hundred years ago, for a lot of them that was the first time that they had seen him since their childhood. He taught all of them how to use spirit the way it was meant to be used, all of them the gift to take energy, and the reason it is so rare to have that gift, because the only ones that have it are the ones that are related to Elijah, either through him or his kids can use it. But that group of people called themselves 'In Trutina' meaning the balance in Latin, and they were dead set on keeping the balance of nature and life in check. They killed, never without a cause, and they all wore those rings. The originals aren't like people though, they don't have the same DNA so it was common for them have kids with their brothers and sisters. They had to for our race to survive. Anyway, the two eldest suspected Elijah of killing without reason, but they needed proof. Their brothers and sisters would probably take their side without any proof considering that they hadn't heard from Elijah in two hundred years, but the brothers and sisters always kept in touch. But they had to be sure, because they didn't want any of their siblings to betray them and tell Elijah what they were planning. In the time that Samantha and Arthur were searching for proof that he was wrongly killing they fell in love, and that was rare. She got pregnant, but they didn't want Elijah to know, because it would be something that he could hold against them, so they came to the one person they knew despised Elijah more than them and that was Uncle Klaus. They hid out with me for nine months, and once she had the baby they were going back to kill Elijah. It was the hardest thing they had to do, because they knew that they might not come back, so I gave them the idea to charm the rings, they would do anything to make sure that their little girl was safe. But, they did t come back, none o them did, so I raised the girl until she was about thirty, I taught her everything about her parents, and about her heritage, and I named her Hope. Then she left, she visited about every hundred years, until I went on my first mission to kill all of the other originals, and then, well I died, so she had no idea where to look for me, and we kind of lost touch." I saw a tear in his eyes by the end of the story.  
>"I understand the ring part, but I'm confused, how come we haven't seen any Strigoi besides the originals that can use magic?" I looked to Klaus and he seemed to snap of the day dream he was having.<br>"We killed them all, well not me, but the other originals, they were ashamed of them, they were 'tainting our race' and falling in love with humans, that's how we got moroi, and then when the moroi fell in love with humans it broke the bloodlines down even further and became dahampirs. So the originals didn't like it, and they took it upon their personal duty to punish them by death. But really they were just digging their race into a deeper hole, because now they didn't have any way to make more, and since all of the siblings hated each other that was never going to happen, so they started making them, they tried many things, one of them being giving their blood to animals" Klaus motioned towards Niki's tent "until they found the one that worked, every time, which was giving their blood to humans and then killing them. They thought if they gave their blood to moroi and killed them that they would be able to use magic, but it wasn't possible. So that's how you got moroi and dhampirs from Strigoi, and why there are no longer any Strigoi that can use magic, besides Hope, she went into hiding, on my orders and as far as I know she hasn't been caught. That's why I went up against the originals in the first place, but once I was reawakened and I saw how much chaos the world was in I just had to do it again." I nodded and looked back down at the rings.

"So why do you think that I'm the only one that can see the Latin?" Klaus just shook his head.  
>"It's not because I'm a girl, it's not because I have a spirit side affect, and it's not because I'm a dhampir. I don't know what to think." I said<br>"No, it wouldn't be any of those, there's only one thing that I can think of, but it's almost impossible." Klaus seemed to say it more to himself than to us, but we could still hear it.  
>"I need blood" Klaus' head shot up and he looked right at me.<br>"Well go get some you know where it is." he was acting really weird.  
>"No, I need your blood." I shot up from the ground and Dimitri was in front of me before I could blink. I poked m head around him,<br>"Why the hell would you need my blood, I'm not letting you anywhere near me."  
>"Neither am I" Dimitri added. Klaus sighed, exasperated<br>"I'm testing a theory, I don't even have to get it from your neck, I can use your finger."  
>"Damn straight, you'll use my finger." I looked to Dimitri and he was shaking his head, but when I looked to Lissa she just shrugged. I nodded and walked over to Klaus<br>"Just do it. Quickly."  
>"I have to warn you-"<br>"Just do it." I cut him off. He shrugged his shoulders and lightly grasped my hand, he took it up to his mouth like he was going to kiss it but instead his fangs extended and I felt their slight prick in my skin. But soon it was overpowered by the high. But it wasn't like anything I had ever felt before, it was so powerful, I felt my knees go weak, and Dimitri's arms around me before I was surrounded in cool nothingness.

I didn't remember anything between that and waking up on the forest floor, Klaus trying to calm an angry Dimitri.  
>"I warned her" he said, but it just got Dimitri more furious.<br>"'I told you so's aren't going to calm him down, if anything it will make him angrier." I sat up and Dimitri rushed over to take me in his arms and I saw Lissa backing away, so i assumed that she had to heal me. I hugged Dimitri and then pushed him to let me down. In that time Niki came running out of her tent.

"Oh my God I can't take it anymore, is it her, tell me, she has to be, there's no other way." Dimitri, Lissa and I all gave Niki the same look of confusion, but Klaus just nodded.  
>"She is" Niki's expression was one of disbelief and hope. Hope, shit, is that what they could be talking about.<p>

"Klaus, am I related to Hope?" Niki and Klaus looked confused that I had made the connection, and Diitri and Lissa just looked plain confused.  
>"How did y-"<br>"Am I, or am I not." he nodded his head  
>"You are." once again my knees grew weak and I collapsed to the ground, only this time Dimitri was too stunned to react.<br>"So I'm related to Hope because I can see the writing on the ring, and Lissa is related to Elijah because she can take energy from other living things?" he nodded  
>"But really every vampire is related to one of the originals in some way, but you two are direct lines from them, you only have one human ancestor not many like most other vampires." Trying to think it all through hurt my head, but one thing kept coming to the forefront of my mind.<br>"So Lissa and I are kind of like sisters?" Klaus thought about it for a while.  
>"Yeah I guess." Lissa squealed and then tackled me and I fell back and she looked at me smiling.<br>"We're sisters!" she screeched. I just chuckled and tried to get up, Dimitri offered his hand to me and I just had to take the opportunity. Instead of letting him pull me up, I pulled him down and he was now lying right next to me, a completely shocked look on his face. I smiled at him and then stuck my hand up to Klaus for him to help me but he just shook his head and smiled and pushed my hand back down. I sighed and started to get up but then Dimitri grabbed my waist and pulled me back down on top of him.  
>"Oh no you don't." Lissa had already gotten up and was smiling at me, and then she walked in her tent, Niki and Klaus took that as their cue to leave and they went back into their tent.<br>"You better not be listening" I shouted at their retreating figures and I saw both of them give a thumbs up. I smiled and leaned over Dimitri. I tried to get up but he pulled me back down, again. I smiled and gave him a kiss.  
>"Will you let me up?" I pouted.<br>"Maybe once I get an apology." I was about to protest thought better of it.

"I'm sorry" I muttered, but he didn't loosen his grip, if anything it got tighter.  
>"What?" I asked.<br>"That didn't sound very sicere" he shook his head trying to emphasize the point.  
>"Fine, Dimitri Belikov I am sincerely regretful of the actions that I showed when you were trying to be a kind gentleman and help me up. I am sorry." I smiled at the end and gave him a kiss.<br>"Well you make a very compelling argument Miss Hathaway but I am going to have to decline your offer to get up." I pouted.  
>"First off, it is Mrs. Hathaway-Belikov now, and second, why?" I whined.<br>"Because I'm picking you up" he said grabbing me around the waist and lifting me goof over to our tent. I was laughing the whole way and he threw me down on the sleeping bag. He hovered over me and I felt some of his stray hairs tickling me cheeks. I leaned up and kissed him, his lips were warm despite it being freezing outside and they were a very welcome warm. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he snaked his around my waist, we both pulled each other closer and he was the only thing I could think about. I pulled away breathless and he continued to kiss down my collarbone.  
>"Dimitri" I half whispered half moaned. He looked up and I met his eyes.<br>"Give me your hand." he unfolded it from around my waist and brought it up to me, I took his ring out of my pocket and put it on his ring finger of his right hand.  
>"I will love you" it took me half a second to realize that he was saying what was on the ring and not just what he thought.<br>"Forever and always" I finished.

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><p>PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me what you thought! I really want to know, i haven't been getting as much imput recently as i used to, so please review!<p> 


	23. Chapter 23

I am soooooooooo sorry for taking so long to update, it was like i had just fallen off the face of the earth, but this is the last chapter (besides the epilog), the FINAL BATTLE! and i had re-written it like 5 times trying to get it perfect and then when i finally did i was a dumb a$$ and forgot to save it so it all got erased! And so here it is, i hope you like it, i know that it took forever and im so sorry, i promise to get the epilog up much much much sooner.

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><p>Chapter 23 Finally over…<p>

I got up the next morning very carefully without waking Dimitri who was looking so sweet and innocent just laying there. I wiggled out of his grip and went out to where the fire was. The only person up was Christian and he looked grumpy.  
>"What was all of the screaming with last night, some people need their sleep."<br>"Oh sorry about that, but it was your girlfriend, so talk to her not me, but we found out that we were kind of sisters." he looked shocked but then just went back to glaring at the fire.  
>"Whatever, I'm exhausted, so I'm going back to bed, and don't even think about waking me up." I gave him a thumbs up and a big smile and he flicked me off as he walked into his tent. I looked at the fire and I saw that the sun was still pretty high up in the sky, so it wasn't a big surprise that everyone was still asleep. Well not everyone<br>"Klaus" I whispered. A couple of seconds later Klaus came out of the tent, I waited until he came and sat down next to me until I asked  
>"So what can these rings do, you said that they were your idea, so you have to know something right?" He took my hand and examined the ring.<br>"unfortunately I have no idea what these things do, I just gave them the idea, they came up with the spells."  
>I sighed and returned my gaze to the bright orange fire. The sun was almost down now, and the first of the stars were starting to make their way out of the clouds. After a couple of minutes Klaus got up to leave.<br>"Why are you leaving, everyone is going to be up in a couple if minutes anyway." he turned around but once he met my gaze he quickly looked away.  
>"Wendy doesn't like waking up when I'm not there, it reminds her that I never sleep and then from there theN woman part of her takes over and she thinks I'm going to kill her." he was looking at his feet with his hands in his pockets and he looked the most human I had ever seen him.<br>"Did she really tell you that?" I knew how bad it must have hurt him to hear that.  
>"Not exactly, but it's the same thing, she wanted to say it, but she didn't want to hurt my feelings, so instead she said it reminded her that I was different \, but I knew what she meant." he turned and walked away and I couldn't help but feel bad for him, I thought it was hard with me and Dimitri, with the age difference, but they had that, and they were pretty much different species.<p>

Within the hour everyone was up and breakfast had come and gone. We practiced that day the same we had practiced when we were preparing for Elijah, the only difference was that during the breaks Dimitri and I would sit down and try to figure out our rings, and Lissa would concentrate on taking energy from the life around us and putting it into our rings.

That's what we did, for the next three weeks, everyone protested that, but with both Klaus and Niki saying that there was no way we were prepared yet, we kind of had to listen. After the three weeks of constant practicing and two runs to the nearest hospital-which was not close-for blood bags, they finally said that we were ready, and Klaus said he knew exactly where Vladimir would be. It felt like we drove to the complete opposite side of England but I know that we didn't. Niki and Klaus drove the two vans so that everyone else could sleep, because according to Klaus it was going to be a long walk.

When I woke up, it was night time again and we were driving by endless forest and in an instant Klaus slammed on the brakes. I looked at the road in front of us thinking it was some animal but then Klaus got out of the car, and Niki got out of the one behind us.

"How do you know that this is the place?" I asked him and he put his finger to his lips and shushed me immediately, then he whispered back  
>"I just know, and you have to be quiet, there are guards everywhere, and perimeter control, so be careful where you step." I nodded as I looked back into the forest, I couldn't see or hear a single soul, that was the first sign that something was wrong. I grabbed the duffel bag with all of the weapons and everyone decided that I was best with the blades, so those were mine, and Adrian got a gun because he was one of the best shots, along with Dimitri, and then we just passed out the rest of them randomly.<br>Klaus motioned with his hands for us to go in and we did, we stayed somewhat spread out, and each Dhampir or Strigoi had a moroi with them so that they could use their element, naturally I got Christian. We were constantly watching where we stepped and I had already stepped over two wires that really didn't look natural but I did t have time to investigate further.

I felt a pulse from my ring and less than a second later there was a strigoi in front of me, I already had my stake out so he was an easy kill, even Christian didn't have time to react. I caught him before he fell and then set him down as quietly as I could. I looked around the forest and it looked just as lifeless as before. It was still eerily quiet, it seemed to swallow up any sounds that anybody made, it gave the forest an enchanted feel. We walked for a couple of miles and killed about ten more Strigoi until we came to a clearing. It was huge, but most of it was covered with a giant mansion. There was only about a hundred feet from the edge of the clearing and the side of the house.

I looked around for a stick, knowing that any sound made this close the Vladimir would be a death sentence. I found one and wrote in the dirt  
>'How do we no where V is?' Klaus shook his head. Then he took his phone out and started typing.<br>'We don't know where he is, but there r going 2 b Strigoi in every room, so we cannot take them 1 at a time or else he will know that we are here, so we have to spread out and get to windows on all sides of the house. At 8:30 Wendy is going to break every window simultaneously. When that happens u will have about 10 sec. 2 kill as many Strigoi as u can b4 they get organized, use your guns if they are faster, and travel in towards the center of the house checking as many rooms as u can as quickly as u can, because in the middle will most likely be where they r, and stay in the shadows until my signal, do not let them know that you are watching them.' he showed the text to me and then I waved everyone over and they all came to look at the phone screen. Everyone nodded and we broke off into the same pairs that we were in going through the forest and we walked around the the house. After we separated I didn't have contact with anybody except Christian, but it was okay because we weren't allowed to talk or else they would hear us, but it was still torture not to know if Dimitri was alright, and I'm sure Christian was going through the same thing with Lissa. We finally came to a window that I thought would be good because It was on the second floor, and I doubted that anyone else would go on the second floor. I gave Christian a boost up and he got onto the windowsill and then I jumped up and grabbed on with my fingertips. It was I high jump, and I just barely made it, but as long as my fingertips were on there that was all that I needed. I wiggled myself up until I could grab it with my hand, and then I shimmied up the wall until I got my forearms and I swung my legs up on the sill and took Christians outstretched hand. I could tell it was killing him not to say something, probably like he could have done it faster but he knew how precious the situation was.

We stood there waiting and I looked at my watch, it said 8:25 but I knew to expect it at any time because her watch could say a different time.

Within minutes I felt pressure building around my body, I felt my ears pop and I felt pushed against the window, but I knew I had to stay away so that I didn't get cut. The pulling sensation soon became painful, the frame that was holding the window in the wall began to creak and that was the only sound that was heard. And then the pain neared unbearable and i thought that if it didn't stop soon i would have to either jump off or go through the window but before that happened the window shattered. I had to hold on to the top of the windowsill so that I didn't go flying through the window. There were Strigoi in that room and Christian immediately lit them on fire, I then jumped into the room and killed the five of them quickly and easily, they didn't even have time to scream, my swords were too fast for them.

Christian then jumped through the window behind me and we made our to the door and then down the long hallway checking in all of the doors, but most of the Strigoi weren't in rooms, they were all headed to the center of the house.

Within a minute all of the rooms were empty and Christian and I could just walk right down the hallway. We made a couple of split second decisions deciding which way to turn but eventually we got to a banister. It reminded me a little of the one that was in the city hall, only it was about five times the size and it didn't have the same cold concrete feel, instead it was all dark cherry woods with candles in every corner and ornate rugs on the floor and thick drapes on the windows. I took a peek over the edge and saw the same thing only down there was about fifty Strigoi.

Vladimir was in the noodle and he was your complete vampire stereotype. He had get slicked back jet black hair just long enough to be pulled back, deathly pale skin with bright red lips, you could see his fangs even when his mouth was shut. He was wearing all black, only making his pale skin paler, and he was completely and utterly in charge, I couldn't hear what he was saying, even with my enhanced hearing, which seemed to be even more heightened as of late, but the Strigoi seemed to hang on his every word. I looked around the outside of the room and stared looking for the other people. The first ones I saw were Eddie and Mia, and then when I looked harder I saw Lissa and Dimitri, and Niki and Rob, and finally Klaus, with a completely not tired Wendy, it took me a while to remember that it was due to the ring that she wasn't tired. I met Klaus' gaze and gave him a nod letting him know that everyone was here, and he nodded back and then I turned to Christian. I pointed at him and then pointed to the ground, and then I did the motions that he usually did when he was making fireballs. I was trying to tell him to stay up here for a better vantage point and when he nodded I just hoped we both agreed to the same thing. I didn't have time to confirm though because I saw Klaus motioning with his fingers to go. I jumped off of the banister to try and distract the Strigoi long enough for my friends to kill at least some of them. When I landed I bent my knees under the impact so that I didn't hurt myself and then I stood up to my full height. I was still a couple inches shorter than the shortest one, but at least I had their attention, even Vladimir's. But I only had it for a second, because then I was on fire. I freaked out, but I didn't show it, because I had gone through this before when Christian lit me on fire, but after the initial shock I realized that I wasn't burning. I didn't dare risk a look in Christians direction for fear of giving away his position. I pulled out one of my swords and stabbed the Strigoi closest to me in the heart, the fire surrounding me immediately quit. I looked to Vladimir and smirked, he looked kind of shocked to see that I wasn't black and crispy, but he hid it so quickly I could barely tell. I looked him right in his bright red eyes and saw out of my peripheral my friends staking Strigoi, but again I didn't want to look at them thinking that it would give away that they were there, although I had no doubt he already knew, because you can never underestimate your opponent.

"This is all you have?" I asked motioning towards the fifty or so Strigoi around him.  
>"I had more, but you killed them, well done by the way, but this will do." his expression didn't change a bit when he was talking about the Strigoi that we had killed, and his voice remained monotone throughout the whole thing.<p>

The next instant I had a fireball coming at me, my first reaction was dodge which I did, but from the direction it came in there was no way it came from Vladimir or Christian.  
>"They can use magic?" Lissa half asked half said.<br>"That's impossible." I looked at Vladimir and I saw a flicker of a smile and then I looked over to Klaus. He was standing there, frozen. I followed his gaze and if I hadn't been mentally preparing myself for the unexpected this whole week I definitely would have passed out, or something close to it. Because there were all of the Strigoi that Christian and I had just killed, and from what I could tell by the faces of my friends the ones that they had killed, and in front of them all, a woman, the one that it looked like Klaus was having a starring contest with. They both had equal measures of hurt in their eyes.  
>"Uncle Klaus" I heard her whisper.<br>"No!" he shouted and at the same time he took a dagger out of his pocket and threw it at her, aiming right for her heart. It stopped millimeters away from her, and it wasn't until I saw Vladimir's outstretched hand that I understood why, but I still didn't understand how. He walked towards her and knocked the dagger out of the air, he pulled her behind him almost protectively and stared Klaus down.

"I could have let you go, I would have let you go, just walk away unharmed, and you could leave before you made the same mistake that you made last time, but now you are going to stay, and now you are going to die." The voice and tone he said it in made you believe him, made you believe that you were going to die, and I knew that he was using compulsion, and once I figured that out I could cast it aside and think clearly.  
>"Well I never would have walked away, you did set me on fire, fair is fair." He took his eyes away from Klaus but I was sure he was still paying just as much attention to him as me.<br>"Well your nothing, I could kill you with a flick of my wrist."  
>"Could you kill me with a flick of your wrist? Because there is no way in hell I would leave either." Niki came out of the shadows, finally revealing herself.<br>"Are you sure about that, you did last time, and you know, you can't teach an old dog new tricks." I heard her growl and it was nothing human, it was all dog, and it was kind of scary.

Even now after so many battles with the originals I still wondered why we stood around talking, I knew that it gave you time to size up your opponent, see all of his forces, but it was stupid, the element of surprise was much better, so in one smooth motion I grabbed out both of my blades from behind my back and chopped the heads off the two Strigoi closest to me, who just seconds ago looked like we were on the same side. In that instant all hell broke loose. The Strigoi ran towards us, all of them branding their element. My head became surrounded by water and I could no longer breath. I ran towards the Strigoi, and I tried to accentuate every move I made by moving my head too, trying to get the water out of the way of my mouth or nose. By practicing with Mia I knew how to hold my breath for about seven minutes and still fight, but I was coming close to that time limit, and I had already killed three water bending Strigoi. I could see stars dancing across my vision and then I heard Dimitri tell me to watch out, and I turned around to see another Strigoi coming at me, but the weird part was that I couldn't hear anything with the water around my head, but I heard him crystal clear. I staked the Strigoi coming towards me and the water around my head disappeared. I took in a breath so big I felt like my lungs were going to explode right out of my chest. I looked to Dimitri and thought _'can you hear me?'_ he said back to me  
>"Why wouldn't I be able to hear you?"<br>_'Because I never said that, I thought it.'_ he paused for a second, and shot me a quick glance bit then went back to fighting.  
><em>'That's impossible' <em>he thought, but I could still hear him as if he were standing right next to me.  
><em>'No Dimitri, it's not impossible.'<em> when I thought that he paused a little bit longer, but he knew that any pause could cost him his life so he quickly got back to fighting. I did the same and the Strigoi standing around me soon became the Strigoi laying around me. Even though they had their elements, with the help of Christian I was easily able to discard them with some minor burns and bruises and being really short of breath. I looked around because for the moment I had no immediate threat and saw that Hope and Klaus were still having a starring contest, and that Niki was fighting Vladimir and loosing terribly.

I saw Adrian and Lissa locked in a battle with some other Strigoi that I guessed were spirit users as well. Then there was Wendy and Rob and Mia fighting Strigoi on one side of the room, and Eddie and Dimitri fighting on the other. I signaled for Christian to attack Vladimir and I saw fireball after fireball come from Christian's direction, but whenever they got within a foot of Vladimir they just disappeared. He didn't even seem to notice them.

I ran over to where Niki was fighting Vladimir and he didn't even seem to notice that I was there, that or he didn't care. I went to kick his legs out from under him from behind but he just jumped over them and landed swiftly on his feet. It distracted Niki more than it did him, and once her concentration broke Vladimir took advantage. He punched her in the chest and I heard the crack of her ribs as she went flying across the room. She hit the opposite wall with a crunch, and when she fell to the floor you could see the cracked plaster where she and the wall came in contact. Rob immediately ran over to her, and Lissa looked her way and then doubled her effort against the Strigoi she was fighting.

Vladimir turned to me and I didn't want him to have the chance to throw the first punch. I aimed for his stomach, because it is the hardest place to dodge, but he did it effortlessly. He spun around, and used his momentum to throw a punch aimed right at my face. I dodged it as well, but not as gracefully as he had, though it would still make any mortal being proud. He kept punching and I kept dodging, there was no time for me to be anything but defense, and I hated being defense. I was becoming tired quickly and so I began to picture the ring that I was wearing in my mind. I concentrated on every little crack and edge and swirl of the silver and imagined it replenishing my life source. But in that moment that was all I could see and that was my fatal mistake. Vladimir landed a punch to my shoulder. It was aimed at my face, so I did dodge, but not enough. I felt a burning pain travel in opposite directions, down to my fingers and to the back of my neck. I stumbled backwards and Vladimir's foot was conveniently in my path. I tripped and landed on the floor.

The image of my ring was the last thing imprinted on my mind before I saw Vladimir, with his sparkling white fangs heading towards me, but just like Christians fireballs, he stopped no less than a foot away from me. He growled in frustration and straightened back up, he went to kick me and instead of the sharp pain in my side that I should have felt, it seemed to spread out encompassing my entire body, and it was no worse than if I had been kicked by a five year old.

He let out another growl of frustration and ran. He ran away, away from me, away from the fight, away from Hope and His brother, and away from Niki, the slave that was once his that now had found her own path. I rolled over and saw Rob caressing her head in his lap, and her eyes fluttered open. I saw the horror in them and in that instant I knew why. Vladimir was standing over Rob, he lifted him up by the back of his shirt and Niki fell to the floor. Rob was standing on his own facing Vladimir. The ground began to shake and Niki and I lay on the floor on opposite sides of the room, both starring up at Vladimir with the same stricken expressions plastered on our face.

"This is for running away" Vladimir's hands went from being at his side, to being wrapped around Rob's head. With a flick of his wrist there was a snap, one that was louder than any other sound in the room, at least it was to me, and Rob fell to the floor, completely limp and lifeless. I thought that Vladimir had run away, but instead he just ran from me, he couldn't hurt me, and he knew that, and Niki was willing to die if it meant killing him, he knew that too, so he hurt Niki in an unimaginable way, he killed the person that she loved, a person that I had come to love too, only not in the same way that she did. He wanted to prove to her that he was still in control, that she had a false sense of security, and that he could rip apart her new life piece by piece, because he let her live, and he let her have the life that she has.

Then there was a scream. A scream filled with so much pain and anguish that it could only leave the lips of someone who had just watched the person they loved most in the world be killed right before their eyes. The scream that couldn't even begin to express the amount of pain she was feeling, but was the only thing she knew to do, the only thing she could think would express the absolute chaos going on inside her. But then the scream was no longer filled with hurt or sorrow, but with anger, and a promise, a promise that the person she loved would be avenged, and that she would make their killer pay, and they would feel the same pain that she was feeling right now. It was a dangerous promise to make but one that I full heartedly believed she would keep.

In the absence of Niki's scream everything seemed silent; it was as if the world was in mourning. She got up effortlessly and quickly. Vladimir seemed to notice his mistake but his expression showed that he really didn't care. Niki ran at him and he easily dodged, but she didn't throw a punch, and so he dodged prematurely, and instead of moving out of the way he moved right into her fist. He seemed shocked that she landed a blow on her, and that delayed his reaction time even further. She landed another punch before I looked away.

Niki's scream seemed to break Klaus from Hope's gaze and now they were fighting. I snuck up behind her and once I was close enough I guided my stake into the position it needed to be to go straight through her back and into her heart, but at the last second she turned around. Instead of going into her heart, my stake went straight through her hand. She let out a scream of pain and anger with a hint of annoyance as I pulled my stake out of her hand. The wound instantly healed and she froze. I followed her gaze and she was starring at my ring. "That was my mother's" she whispered. "And my ancestors, and being an expert in this field, she would be very disappointed in you." It looked like I had slapped her in the face and then Klaus drove his stake through her heart. "I'm sorry that I didn't try hard enough." He caught her as she was falling to the ground and set her down gently.

"She can't come back, can she?"  
>"No" He pulled his stake out and put it back into its sheath.<p>

Niki was still fighting Vladimir, along with Christian; each time he would throw a fireball they would come just a little closer to Vladimir. I started to run over to help Niki but a Strigoi got in my path. I swung around with my arm, and at the same time swung out my leg to kick his feet out from under him. He dodged my punch but jumped just a little too late and his toes caught on my leg and he fell to the floor. I kneeled over him and drove my stake through his heart, just as all of the air was sucked from my lungs. I pulled out my stake and took in a full breath of sweet oxygen.

I got up and just before I got to Niki she drove her stake into Vladimir. He let out a scream of shock and pain "That's for thinking you can still control me." By the angle of the stake I could tell that it wasn't in his heart and then Niki twisted it, and Vladimir screamed even louder "That's for thinking you could ever control me." She twisted it one last time and instead of him screaming he let out a sigh "And that's for killing Rob." She let go of the dagger and he fell to his knees, and then onto the floor.

It was over, finally, the thing that had taken me away from my life, the thing that had caused me so much pain was finally over. I took a look around the now ruined mansion and took in every sight, Klaus standing over Vladimir with an expression of triumph and regret. Lissa healing the other Moroi. Niki clutching Rob's lifeless body as if her tears could bring him back. Adrian holding on to Niki trying to soothe her and make her forget the tragedy that just occurred. And finally my eyes met Dimitri, the one man that I loved more than life, the soul reason I did this, the soul person I wanted to protect. I ran over to him and jumped into his arms, he was the thing that made me forget all of this sadness and all of the death that had just gone on around us, I found comfort in his embrace and if it was up to me, that is where I would stay for the rest of my life. _'It's over'_ I thought _'It's finally over'_ he agreed.

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><p>What do you think? how terrible was it? REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!<p> 


	24. Chapter 24

As promised here is chapter 24, the last chapter!

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><p>Chapter 24… Epilog<p>

I let go of Dimitri and looked around. All of the Strigoi were now dead and the only sound that could be heard was Niki's sobbing. I walked over to her and put my arms around her, I gave Adrian a look and he got up and went over to Lissa to help heal everyone. "Niki" I whispered, "I can't even begin to believe what you are going through, I could only imagine how I would feel if I lost Dimitri. But you did all you could do, you killed Vladimir, and you avenged Rob's death, but we have to go, we have to get Vladimir out of here, it's too dangerous for him to be out in the open, we don't know how many Strigoi are still hiding in this place and all one of them has to do is come and pull out this dagger and he's alive again. We have to get Klaus to put him in the tomb so that he will finally be safe. But we have to do that now and we aren't going to leave you."  
>"Well I'm not leaving him" She looked to Rob and ran her fingers through his hair. 'Isn't their anything Lissa or Adrian can do? Can't they heal him?"She started to tear up again and I pulled her closer.<br>"They can heal his neck, but it isn't going to bring him back." She nodded her head like she already knew the answer and just looked down at his lifeless body.  
>"We need to get him in the tomb" she said getting up, she set Rob's body down carefully and looked towards Vladimir. "I won't be able to rest until that son of a bitch is safely in the tomb. But we have to come back here, I'm not leaving Rob with these monsters. And Klaus, when we all go back, and you give people their memory back of all of them, can you leave Rob out, I don't want anyone to have to go through the pain of losing him, I want the ten of us to be the only people that have to go through that pain." Klaus nodded and walked over to Niki "Whatever you want."<br>"Thank you Klaus"

We were back in the cars and driving to the tomb for the very last time, going to put Vladimir in his final grave. Adrian had already arranged for a plane to pick us up at the sight of the tomb and then we were on our way back to St. Vlads after a short stop at the mansion to burry Rob. We had been driving for a couple of hours and finally got to the tomb. We all got out of the cars and Kluas through Vladimir over his shoulder. We walked down the steps and into the main room.

Klaus slid the lid to the last coffin out of the way and gently placed Vladimir in it. He shut the lid and turned to walk away. "That's it? We did this whole thing, risked our lives, and all you have to do is put him in there and close the lid, how could one man cause so much pain. He can't be everywhere at once, and he was in that mansion for God knows how long, how can all of these terrible things that happened be caused by this one man?" Klaus looked like he was having an internal battle with himself and then he just shook his head. "Spit it out, what were you going to say."

"I can't tell you, it'll ruin you." He shook his head again and began to walk up the stairs.  
>"Tell me, I'm not leaving here until you tell me." He slowly turned around and then in the blink of an eye was standing right in front of me.<br>"You think Strigoi are evil?" I gave him a look that said he was a bigger dumb ass then I thought.  
>"Well yeah."<br>"And that thought is the only thing that keeps your conscious clear when you kill them? That they are evil, and that innocent lives will be lost if you don't kill them." I nodded my head again, not liking where this was going.  
>"Well only the second part is true, they aren't really evil, not the ones that were turned by force anyway, Vladimir made them evil, he had control over every single Strigoi, although he didn't control their every move, he controlled the way they thought, he controlled what they believed, he is the one that made them killers. There are very few that are not under his control and they are all in this room, not all alive." I looked at Niki, and Klaus, and all of the other coffins in the room. I just shook my head<br>"No, no this can't be, that's impossible, no one can control that many people, I don't believe you." I was shaking my head and slowly backing up until I hit Dimitri. I sank down to the ground having found no reason for Klaus to lie to me besides just playing a cruel joke.  
>"I told you, it would destroy you." I looked to Niki and she just nodded her head.<p>

"NOOOOOOO! All the Strigoi I killed, all of the PEOPLE I killed, they were innocent, they could have been saved!"  
>"You did save them" Dimitri whispered "Everything they were doing was a lie, they were being controlled and the only way to break that control was to kill them, they truly didn't want to be like that, but they didn't have a choice, you gave them an escape, you saved them from an eternity of slavery." Not only did I take comfort in his words, but in his voice, and warm breath on my neck. I leaned into him, I held his shirt in a death grip. I gritted my teeth trying to pull back the tears that were threatening to escape from their home where I kept them locked away. I took in a deep breath and smelt Dimitri's amazing aftershave, and with that smell all of the memories that it triggered. The times when I knew he was behind me just by the smell, and he never knew why he wasn't able to sneak up on me, and the times when that was all that I could smell, and it was all around me, and I knew that we were going to have more of those memories, and that I was given the amazing gift of being able to make it through this alive and with him.<p>

"It's not going to destroy me, I won't let it." Klaus nodded his head and began to once again walk up the stairs, and this time I followed suit. Dimitri and I left hand in hand and when we got back outside there was a plane their waiting for us. We got on and began our journey home.

* * *

><p>Okay, soooooooo what do you think? Now i have an idea for a sequal but i dont know if you guys would want it, or you would rather me just stop here, so review and tell me what you want! Thanks guys, you have all been so awesome and i have had such a fun time writing this story, i can't believe that it is over, i don't know what i am going to do with all of my spare time now :) REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!<p> 


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